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U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#11

Post by watty »

api wrote: post #8
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #5

No way, "high-end marijuana". Crazy. Extremely dangerous!

It's dangerous to compete with state-protected real drug cartels. In all seriousness... does anyone think the present-day prohibition racket isn't just as corrupt as what was going on in the 1920s? Drug Enforcement Agency... who do you think they're enforcing for? It's almost impossible that it wouldn't be that corrupt. There is just too much freaking money involved, the stakes too high, for massive numbers of people…

State-protected real drug cartels and prohibition rackets... can you expand? These drugs aren't just illegal here, are similar drug cartels running countries around the world?

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#13

Post by pjscott »

llambda wrote: post #10
pjscott wrote: post #6

That's a shame. These guys' lives are going to be seriously messed up by this, and from the drug list, it looks like they were selling fairly ethical stuff; according to the article, they sold "LSD, ecstasy, fentanyl, mescaline ketamine, DMT and high-end marijuana".

> it looks like they were selling fairly ethical stuff; according to the article, they sold "LSD, ecstasy, fentanyl, mescaline ketamine, DMT and high-end marijuana" "Fentanyl is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine, with 100 micrograms of fentanyl approximately equivalent to 10 mg of morphine and 75 mg of pethidine (meperidine) in analgesic activity."[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl

Okay, that's an exception. Scary stuff. (My sympathy is still with the guys running this service, but my estimate of their virtue went down.)

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#14

Post by aviv »

If these guys were using e-gold or some other alternative payment system, the Feds would raid the currency operator's offices as well and seize servers (as they have done in the past). Not so with PayPal and Western Union (I'm not disagreeing with the lack of such action).

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#15

Post by api »

watty wrote: post #11
api wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's dangerous to compete with state-protected real drug cartels. In all seriousness... does anyone think the present-day prohibition racket isn't just as corrupt as what was going on in the 1920s? Drug Enforcement Agency... who do you think they're enforcing for? It's almost impossible that it wouldn't be that corrupt. There is just too much freaking money involved, the stakes too high, for massive numbers of people…

State-protected real drug cartels and prohibition rackets... can you expand? These drugs aren't just illegal here, are similar drug cartels running countries around the world?

They don't "run countries," but there is massive corruption.

Prohibition is basically a price-fixing scheme, and makes illegal drugs obscenely profitable. Years ago I knew a friend who got into it, and he made over $20,000 in one weekend by simply driving a car across the border once. (He ended up getting in trouble unfortunately, though he's much better now and no longer involved.)

If a person is willing to put up with the risk, there are few more profitable businesses.

I've heard recent figures around $400 billion per year globally. So you've probably got cartels that were they legitimate businesses would be on the Fortune 500.

With profits like that, large-scale operations have a lot of money to throw around to bribe cops, judges, government officials, etc. So as a result, the large cartels end up with a privileged position. Smaller operations that cannot afford to have such people on their payroll get targeted preferentially.

Look into the history of bootlegging in Chicago in the 20s. It's the same kind of thing.

The horrible thing about prohibition is that it's such a potent force for institutional corruption. The naiveté of the soccer moms that support it is disgusting. They all need to be beaten with a reality stick.

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#16

Post by philwelch »

watty wrote: post #11
api wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's dangerous to compete with state-protected real drug cartels. In all seriousness... does anyone think the present-day prohibition racket isn't just as corrupt as what was going on in the 1920s? Drug Enforcement Agency... who do you think they're enforcing for? It's almost impossible that it wouldn't be that corrupt. There is just too much freaking money involved, the stakes too high, for massive numbers of people…

State-protected real drug cartels and prohibition rackets... can you expand? These drugs aren't just illegal here, are similar drug cartels running countries around the world?

The money goes from the tobacco, and alcohol manufacturers to the lobbyists to the reelection campaigns for the politicians that eliminate their competition. Pretty decent racket. There are similar rackets for Hollywood movies, petroleum, automobiles....

As api points out, there are also drug rackets and cartels that sell the nominally illegal stuff. Those guys can bend cops to eliminate their competition as well.

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#17

Post by rdl »

plessthanpt05 wrote: post #9
TillE wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> accepting payment through PayPal Uh. How did they expect to remain anonymous with a PayPal account?

hahaha...seriously? with PayPal? i suppose it could (maybe) be done with prepaid credit cards, but still.

Use forged documents for everything (including your bank accounts), and keep really small balances. Maybe also do business accounts, ideally also with forged info (particularly for US businesses, people don't check the documents very well). I assume PayPal does lazy checking, and will not check a low balance account as much.

Linkability is the real enemy of anonymity.

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#19

Post by philwelch »

api wrote: post #15
watty wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State-protected real drug cartels and prohibition rackets... can you expand? These drugs aren't just illegal here, are similar drug cartels running countries around the world?

They don't "run countries," but there is massive corruption. Prohibition is basically a price-fixing scheme, and makes illegal drugs obscenely profitable. Years ago I knew a friend who got into it, and he made over $20,000 in one weekend by simply driving a car across the border once. (He ended up getting in trouble unfortunately, though he's much better now and no longer involved.) If a person is willing to put up w…

> They don't "run countries,"

Look at Mexico. They might not run the country yet, but they're giving it a go for sure.

Re: U.S. busts Tor drug market, arrests eight

#20

Post by taligent »

api wrote: post #8
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #5

No way, "high-end marijuana". Crazy. Extremely dangerous!

It's dangerous to compete with state-protected real drug cartels. In all seriousness... does anyone think the present-day prohibition racket isn't just as corrupt as what was going on in the 1920s? Drug Enforcement Agency... who do you think they're enforcing for? It's almost impossible that it wouldn't be that corrupt. There is just too much freaking money involved, the stakes too high, for massive numbers of people…

Seriously. Why don't you just wake up and get a grip.

The majority of the countries on this planet have similar drug policies to the US. They aren't all corrupt and in many countries the policies are quite effective. So to rant on like a crazy person about corruption and conspiracies just makes you sound unstable. There are many practical areas that the US can focus on like better border controls rather than opening up the can of worms that is legalising all drugs.

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