Ahem.
ncountylee, how would you know about the pricing of all these nasty things?
/teasing!
Dealers are gouging the American consumer.
Coupons????
Looks like Pittsburg is getting gouged. How about a government investigation?
http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/japan.asp
What we've long suspected: drug money helps fund terror
This article from the Japanese daily newspaper Sankei Shimbun explores what many have suspected for some time: a link between drug money and terrorism.
Earlier this week, the US extradicted accused drug lord Baz Mohamed from Afghanistan. Baz Mohamed is accused of having strong links to the Taliban.
The author also makes a good point about the relationship between Al Qaeda, Iran, and Iraq, using the analogy of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
This article is well worth reading...
Japan's Drug Money Suspected To Have Ties With Islamic 'Terrorists' in Iran Part three of a three-part series on a growing drug-smuggling market involving Iranians in Japan by Ryosuke Sumii, Eisuke Asano, and Norio Sakurai: "Investigation: Iranian Crimes; (3) Deepening Suspicion Of Drug Money As 'Terrorist Funds'"
Sankei Shimbun
Thursday, October 27, 2005
In January 2002 the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested two Iranians on charges of forgery of notarized private documents as well as using them.
They were suspected to have illegally remitted overseas as much as 400 million yen, which is believed to have been raised from underground sales of amphetamine.
"There are odd flows of cash." Investigators got a tip from the Financial Services Agency. A savings account at a Kawasaki post office has had deposits worth as much as 840 million yen from a total of 140 people, including Iranians, since 2000. The two Iranians sent, under false names, half that amount overseas from a Tokyo branch of a major bank. There are hints that they were careful not to exceed the maximum amount of "5 million yen (at that time)" per remittance as determined under the Foreign Exchange Law.
In charge of investigation was the Public Safety Department, which is responsible for, among others, international terrorism. Specifically, it is the Third Foreign Affairs Section, which was newly created in October 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. It is the nation's first police unit dedicated to international terrorism. The reason investigators of this section took note of this financial affair is where the money was sent.
Illegal overseas cash remittances, which are otherwise known as an underground bank, ordinarily involve illegal transfers of money deposited by fellow countrymen or countrywomen back to their home country. However, the two men sent money to a total of 17 countries and regions, including the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Ukraine. Recalls a senior Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department official: "We got excited because we suspected that the money was flowing into terrorist funds through money laundering."
Police found out, through the assistance of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), that five of the accounts turned out to be on the black lists in various countries prepared by local law enforcement authorities. They are suspected to have ties to projects to develop weapons of mass destruction, such as missiles and nuclear weapons.
A former investigator, who has now retired from the Public Safety Department, says: "We could not go any further because of barriers like police jurisdiction, but we were very shocked at the suspicion that the Japanese market of amphetamine and other drugs may be a 'source' of terrorist funds."
"'Cell phones with clients' can be sold for as much as 45 million yen," confides a senior Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department official.
Cell phones with clients refer to cell phones that are used to receive calls from customers over transactions of amphetamine and others. To be precise, they are "cell phone numbers." Even if rival dealers or the police take possession of the cell phone in question, its owner can immediately transfer the number to a new cell phone.
Some cell phones have lists of up to several hundred customers, and they are traded at a premium among Iranian drug dealers.
The authorities have figured out the "mechanism" of cell phones with clients, which can generate huge profits. They succeeded in putting five cell phones with a client list, owned by Iranians, out of service under the law to prevent illegal use of cellular phones, which partially took effect in May.
Under the law, wireless telephone service providers, when asked by police to verify the user of a cell phone suspected to have been used in a crime, are allowed to discontinue services if the owner cannot be verified.
A senior National Police Agency official emphasizes: "The best remedy against cell phones with clients is not to let cell phones with no clear ownership run loose." However, it is also true that privacy and other issues stand in the way.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Public Safety Department was also charged with the task in 1993 to clean up the group of Iranians selling fake telephone cards. In the background back then were also crackdowns on international terrorism.
In 1988, a terrorist bomb blew up a Pan Am jet liner over Scotland. At the time, some speculated that "Islamic extremists" were the attack's culprits. The World Trade Center in New York was bombed in a terrorist attack in February 1993. Alarmed by these attacks, police officials in Japan were beginning to privately discuss the need to put measures against Muslim radicals in place.
Morohiro Ohno, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute of Japan, with in-depth knowledge of Islamic affairs, reminds us: "Shiite Iran and Sunni Al-Qaeda are not basically compatible with each other." He then goes on to point out: "The US criticizes that Iran tacitly approves of activities by Al-Qaeda in that country. It is a fact that after Afghan bombings, some Al-Qaeda members took refuge in Iran. They are feeling something of an affinity, as they are both against the US."
An official in charge of public safety says: "We cannot rule out the possibility that Japanese drug money is linked to a nuclear weapon project or Islamic terrorist organizations. We should not ease our grip on drug crackdowns involving Iranians."
(Description of Source: Tokyo Sankei Shimbun (Internet version-WWW) -- Internet version of daily published by Fuji Sankei Communications Group)
What a waste of money. I wonder how much the average user pays a year to support their habit?
hmm, one of them doubles in price, the other one 8x. Due to difference in interdiction efforts?
Cocaine - $17,000 to $32,000
Heroin - $48,000 to $80,000
Hartford, Conn.:
Cocaine - $18,000 to $26,000
Heroin - $90,000
Wow, there's some arbitrage opportunity, and Hartford is only about a two hour drive from NYC. You could buy a KG of heroin in NYC for $48,000 to $80,000 and sell it in Hartford for $90,000. Then you could take the proceeds and find a cheap cocaine dealer and then sell it in NYC for up to $32,000 per kilogram. It's quite rare that arbitrage opportunities like this can exist in two markets of close geographic proximity and that there can be effective arbitrage in BOTH directions, which would serve to further minimize transport costs and maximize profitability.
What I'm wondering is if there's a difference in purity in the markets. Because if there is, then the arbitrage may not work as well. I'll have to give this idea more thought before changing my line of work.
Also, I'm wondering if you did this in enough volume that you could negotiate large volume discounts? I guess another problem with my arbitrage strategy is that I'm willing to bet that the dealers in the said markets probably wouldn't be willing to extend much credit on very favorable terms. This would probably be a mainly cash business, which would mean that the effective tax rate would probably be zero, but it would also make it difficult to distribute dividends to investors in this scheme. I'll have to model this a bit more.
Does Southwest fly to Santo Domingo???
Time for a "Road Trip!!!"
But that may cause some discomfort for W's buddy Vicente.
Even the Dominican prices are at least 100 times the cost of production.
A $3/day habit will confine its damages to the user, instead of the current $300/day junkie stealing cars and TVs worth thousands to support his habit.
Follow the money to discover the truth about drug laws. It's not pretty.
Reminds me of a little dos (remember dos?) game I used to play on the PC called 'drug dealer'. That's probably where the DEA gets it's prices from.