“I’ve pondered the same way and came up with basically the same thing you did-that too many people in too many high places are profiting from the drug trade in the form of being paid off some way.
That is the only thing that makes sense to me.”
You are absolutely right. The drug trade is a multi-billion dollar business, and the people who have the power and the moral obligation to stop it do not have the desire. It is nearly certain that many in government, federal and local, have been bought off by the ceaseless flow of easy cash. How many in congress are actively trying to stop the drug trade? Some do lip service, but none are seriously trying to do anything about it.
This is nothing new. Bill Clinton ran one of the most corrupt administrations in our history, second only to the idiot now in power. Barry Seal and several others gave their lives for knowing too much, or trying to stop the Mena, AR cocaine flights operation. Google his name or Mena and you may be shocked at what you find, providing the incriminating parts have not been scrubbed.
The last report I’ve read said that over 85% of the drugs consumed worldwide are consumed in the US. That makes a grand market for the illegal trade. Many people, some that I know personally, think it’s pretty cool to light up a joint on Sunday morning, or snort a line or two on Saturday night, totally oblivious to where it came from or how much misery and death it costs south of the border.
Government involvement in the drug trade has by no means stopped. Fast & Furious armed the Zetas in Mexico, and gave the Sinaloa cartel free reign in parts of the US, Denver and Chicago in particular. The arms found from this operation are probably only the tip of the iceberg, and we see the “investigation” going nowhere. Politicians are notoriously easy to buy off or scare off.
Operation Castaway armed the Mara-18 in Central America. Arms were flown in from Tampa to clandestine airstrips in Honduras, at least one of which was intercepted by the Policia Nacional and reported in La Prensa in Tegucigalpa. Those captured were found in possession of fully automatic M-16 rifles, RPGs, grenades and shoulder-fired AA missiles, as well as a load of cocaine ready to be loaded onto the plane for the return trip.
Here in Central America we see the effects of the US drug habit every day: Massive government corruption, poverty due to violence or intimidation because of the expansion of drug gangs, innocent people killed because they refuse to become “mules” or hit men for the gangs, loss of business and infrastructure and constant violence between rival gangs wanting a piece of the drug pie. All because Americans want to kick back and get high.
The war on drugs is as phony as Barack Obama. The government has no desire to kill the goose laying golden eggs, and it undoubtedly adds a good percentage to the overall GDP, one way or another. As long as Americans have the money to buy illicit drugs this war will continue. I see no solution because the collective habit is not about to stop.
The first thing I thought of when I saw that headline was Mena.