Sear Will Appreciate This One

[Borg Refinery]

Architect of Mexico's war on drugs on trial in US for trafficking
A once-powerful Mexican government minister who oversaw his country's war on drug trafficking goes on trial in New York on Tuesday, himself charged with facilitating the smuggling of narcotics.

Genaro Garcia Luna is accused of taking huge bribes to allow the notorious Sinaloa cartel to smuggle cocaine when he was public security minister during Felipe Calderon's 2006-2012 presidency.

The 54-year-old is the highest-ranking Mexican official to be charged in New York federal prosecutors' extensive pursuit of alleged drug traffickers from Central and South America and their ministerial accomplices.

Ex-Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who headed Sinaloa, is currently serving a life sentence in the United States after being convicted by a jury in Brooklyn in 2019.

Notorious Colombian drug lord Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as "Otoniel," is awaiting trial in the same district, while former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez has denied drug trafficking charges filed by prosecutors in Manhattan.

Garcia Luna was detained in Texas in December 2019. He has pleaded not guilty to five counts that carry possible sentences of between 10 years and life in prison.

US prosecutors accuse Garcia Luna of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to look the other way as Guzman's cartel shipped tons of drugs into the United States between 2001 and 2012.

The US government alleges that Garcia Luna became a member of Sinaloa around January 2001 when he was working in police intelligence.

Prosecutors say that in exchange for millions of dollars, he agreed not to interfere with drug shipments, tipped off traffickers about law enforcement operations, targeted rival cartel members for arrest and placed other corrupt officials in positions of power.

A former Sinaloa member told Guzman's trial that he had delivered suitcases containing at least $6 million in cash to Garcia Luna at a restaurant in 2005, 2006 and 2007. [..]

This is what they do, bribe and pay people off, threaten their families and use other methods of coercion invMexico and the USA equally. The danger is that they attain as much power as FARC in Colombia and become an entrenched parallel govt of sorts, which is what happens in places across the world, even in Italy there are whole cities (small ones) where the Ndrangheta control everything and the Carabinieri do NOT set foot because they will be executed on the spot.

We need coordinated military action to take such organisations out and put ringleaders in prison, including security services if necessary. That is what it takes to beat these guys. The danger is even greater when people like ex Italian premier Berlusconi are ex-mafiosi themselves. Then again, Trump had mob conections....

Re the war on drugs, I think decriminalisation of some drugs is reasonable but I'm not sure I would go as far as to advocate decriminalisation of hard drugs (ie crack, spice, PCP, heroin, meth, fentanyl etc). IMHO decriminalisation of weed and certain other 'recreational' drugs is probably reasonable (I'm thinking - in small quantities - ecstasy, speed, LSD, 'shrooms' etc), but it's not good to encourage their use. There needs to be a small deterrent I think.

 

[sear]

This is what they do, bribe and pay people off, threaten their families and use other methods of coercion invMexico and the USA

In Mexico the drug thug expression is “plata o plomo”, meaning "Silver or Lead". Meaning, take a bribe, or take a bullet.
Dr. Milton Friedman won a Nobel prize in economics. Friedman explained it's the prohibition that creates this crime, AND the violence, the destruction that attends it. Eliminate the Drug War prohibition, and the drug thuggery has no basis. The sanity check that confirms it? Al "scar face" Capone thrived as a "rum runner" during Prohibition.
Beverage ethanol "criminals" used violence to settle their turf battles, because law courts wouldn't. Then Prohibition was ended. Then liquor store and beer store operators had recourse though our law courts to settle their disputes, and Drug Peace descended upon our land, ending the beverage ethanol war.

We need coordinated military action to take such organisations out and put ringleaders in prison, including security services if necessary. That is what it takes to beat these guys. The danger is even greater when people like ex Italian premier Berlusconi are ex-mafiosi themselves. Then again, Trump had mob conections....

It's a very appealing fantasy. Right vs Wrong: the wrong a worth adversary, but righteousness and common human decency converge, and defeat the malevolent forces of ...
Many a dull feature film has been based on such plot line.
There are indications it may be more fiction than fact.

- The U.S. can't even keep contraband out of our prisons.
- Prohibition was a failure. Bootleggers and speak-easy's thrived.

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), U.S. president. Speech, 18 Dec. 1840, to Illinois House of Representatives.

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion." Thomas Jefferson

Surely there's been waffling about it during centuries of U.S. history. But the pretense is that Liberty is a birthright in the U.S. And in that context, Drug War is a conspicuous, flagrant violation of that Liberty.

I think decriminalisation of some drugs is reasonable but I'm not sure I would go as far as to advocate decriminalisation of hard drugs (ie crack, spice, PCP, heroin, meth, fentanyl etc). IMHO decriminalisation of weed and certain other 'recreational' drugs is probably reasonable (I'm thinking - in small quantities - ecstasy, speed, LSD, 'shrooms' etc), but it's not good to encourage their use. There needs to be a small deterrent I think.

I suspect that's a widely held perspective. My reason for opposing it is on principle. There is no Liberty exception for fentanyl. If as Jefferson describes above, the decision is not the government's, but the citizen's, then the entire concept of cafeteria Liberty is undermined. Rightly so.

That's NOT an endorsement of drug abuse. But I believe most citizens can conduct themselves properly without Drug War. Statistics may verify this. Has Drug War reduced per capita drug consumption? How much cocaine was consumed in the U.S. before Volstead was born?

"I hate when people tell me to smile.
You can't be happy all the time. You'll ruin your liver. Sometimes you've got to put the bottle down, like when you're signaling a lane change." Bonnie McFarlane

"There are more old drunkards than old doctors." Benjamin Franklin

PS pending

 

[sear]

Drug War in the U.S. is cowardice. It's paranoia. It's flagrant hypocrisy. And Drug War in the U.S. and elsewhere has proved to be a human rights catastrophe. It is barbaric.

Sadly, a majority of U.S. States circumventing the U.S. federal War on Marijuana (though perhaps seemingly benevolent to some) may not be the benefit superficial glance suggests.
For removing the most popular drug from the Drug War lineup makes it easier for the martial usurpation of Drug War to continue for the foreseeable future. "Liberty" does not make pharmacological distinction. Recreational drugs may be no panacea. Is Drug War any better?
Any U.S. tax payer / voter that doesn't want to sit through Sunday morning's sermon with a hangover can learn to not overdo it Saturday night. Self-control is superior to Drug War. U.S. government was Founded in the 18th Century to be our benevolent servant. In the 21st Century under the U.S. Drug War regime U.S. government has become our punitive master. “Ah, Houston, we’ve had a problem.”