Posted on 09/06/2012 7:40:48 AM PDT by AtlasStalled
The profit margin for organized crime from contraband tobacco has surpassed the drug trade according to a new report by the Virginia State Crime Commission as reported by Frank Green for the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "drug dealers are switching to cigarettes because there is plenty of money to be made, less violence and the penalties if caught are much lighter."
Last year CNBC ran the documentary Cigarette Wars which claimed the United States "loses $5 billion in tax revenue every year from the trafficking of illegal cigarettes" as reported by Brian A. Shactman:
"The crime has several variations, but it's extremely simple. The most common way: Buy cigarettes in a low-tax state and sell them in a high tax state. The tax disparity is straight profit. * * * Historically, the crime is considered a common racket executed by the mafia. But in 2011, the criminals range from gangs to terrorist groups. There are cases of illegal cigarette sales with ties to groups like Hezbollah and the Irish Republican Army."
Virginia has among the lowest tax rates in the county for the smokey treats, and its cigarettes have flooded the black market in New York which imposes much higher taxes.
Legalize Cigarettes! Oh, wait...
LOL
That’s the thing, you think there’s a war on drugs now, just wait until it’s legalized and the government starts getting a cut of the action.
As predicted when they slammed huge taxes on cigarettes to buy healthcare “fo da chillin”
Who could have possibly predicted this?
wonder how much our current a former politicians are making?
Corrupt government officials and cops already ARE getting giant cuts of the action. They just don’t want to share any with us…
The WOD is an illusion. Everyone with a brain knows it is impossible to stop plants and chemicals that people are willing to pay more for than their weight in gold. There is not a single person out there who can’t get drugs or doesn’t use drugs because of the WOD. Anyone who doesn’t use does so out of personal choice, not because of laws or lack of supply.
The government simply manages the unstoppable trade by protecting the "right" people and eliminating competition. Keeping it illegal keeps prices sky high and gives them complete control over the industry.
This isn’t news if you’ve been connecting the dots:
● Gary Webb was a Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist. His claim to fame was the “Dark Alliance” investigative series in the late 1990s. It showed that during the 1980s, the CIA assisted Nicaraguan drug traffickers with smuggling cocaine into the USA and provided protection for gangs involved in street-level distribution. The intent was to secretly fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras in their war against Soviet-supported communists. There is even evidence that these particular CIA-backed drug distributors were responsible for first introducing crack into our inner cities. As the War on Drugs was intensified in the 1980s, the price of cocaine skyrocketed and enabled these CIA-protected gangs to reap much more in profit.
His work was essentially buried by the mainstream (government-controlled) media without either follow-up or disproof. Then in the early 2000s, he began to put this story back out there by using the internet. In 2004, he was found dead with TWO gunshot wounds to the head. His death was ruled a suicide because a supposed note was found.
● In the mid 2000s, European investigative reporters uncovered that numerous private aircraft registered by front companies were used to covertly move secret CIA prisoners between Europe, the USA and Guantanamo Bay (Prisoner Rendition Aircraft). These were gross violations of international laws and sovereignty of many nations. This flight data is only found on European records and was quickly removed from the FAA’s database. The CIA does not respond to any inquiries regarding this information and does not confirm or deny such planes ever existed. Rendition Aircraft
In 2007, more light was shed on this program but in a very very different way:
● On September 24, 2007, a Gulfstream II private jet (number N987SA) crashed in the Yucatan near Cancun. It took off from a small airstrip in Columbia after being loaded with over 3 tons of cocaine. This same exact plane was previously revealed in the CIA prisoner Rendition program. It was used for several trips between Guantanamo Bay and Washington DC – obvious centers of CIA interrogation and imprisonment.
It was supposed to land in Cancun to conceal the flight’s origin and then continue to Ft Lauderdale Executive Airport. There was a failure in bribing Mexican officials and a radio transmission alerted the pilots that police were waiting on the ground to intercept. It circled the Yucatan for several hours while being “pursued” by Mexican military helicopters until it crash landed in a remote jungle. 4 passengers/crew were listed on the manifest but no bodies were ever discovered. The 3 tons of cocaine were recovered at the scene. The owner of the aircraft was a fake Ft Lauderdale company, Donna Blue Aircraft, with an empty office, no other planes and a fake name listed on their FAA forms. This company was later tied to money launderers working for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
The flight history of this aircraft immediately “disappeared” from the FAA system. All that remains is the NTSB crash report with the flight origin entered as “?”- N987SA Crash Report
● In 2011-2012, the Fast & Furious and Gunwalker scandals began to penetrate the mainstream media. It was found that the ATF and USDOJ were encouraging weapons to fall into the hands of the Sinaloa drug cartel in a supposed effort to track them later. The program was partially uncovered due to the murder of US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Thousands of Mexicans are also believed to have been killed with these “walked” guns. While these Mexicans were being killed, many mainstream media reports attempted to encourage “gun control” in the US to curb violence in Mexico. After the scandal leaked, these reports “mysteriously” stopped. ATF Gunwalking Scandal
● Explosive new allegations this summer about the ties between Cartels and the US Government:
CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says
High-Ranking Mexican Drug Cartel Member Makes Explosive Allegation: ‘Fast and Furious’ Is Not What You Think It Is
[It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels]
Smokey treats? WTF kind of person thinks like this?
Simply wrong. This report was not issued by the VSCC but received by it; the source of the higher-profit-margin claim is the unsupported statement of an unnamed Virginia State Police agent. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/sep/06/tdmet01-va-crime-commission-gets-study-on-extent-o-ar-2181815/
The price of heroin base goes up 30-fold simply by transporting it from the source country to the destination country - cigarette tax evasion will never approach that degree of profitability.
Well, duh! Both are profitable because of government meddling FWIW.
61% in Colorado Favor Legalizing, Regulating Marijuana (27% against)
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_state_surveys/colorado/61_in_colorado_favor_legalizing_regulating_marijuana
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Suppose it passes in Colorado. Would you support CO's authority under the Tenth Amendment to carry out such a policy?
It should be up to the States.
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