$1 billion of cocaine seized in largest American drug bust

Associated Press ^ | June 18, 2019

[ConservativeStatement]

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. authorities seized more than $1 billion worth of cocaine Tuesday from a ship at a Philadelphia port, calling it one of the largest drug busts in American history.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia announced the massive bust on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, saying law enforcement agents seized about 33,000 pounds of cocaine from a large ship at the Packer Marine Terminal. Members of the crew were arrested and face federal charges.

[Mark17]

Don’t we seem to hear, that every other week, we get news about the biggest drug bust in history? They keep getting bigger.

[Jyotishi]

This is a good time to open private drug rehab centers for the hooked elite in Washington and Hollywood.

[hanamizu]

The feds should be legally equipped to take ships that are used to bring drugs here.

---

I don’t know why they’re not. At the border there are lots full of cars that were seized because they contained drugs.

I knew of a young woman who regularly smuggled leather purses from Juarez to sell in her shop in El Paso. One time she was given some grief at the border and the purses were seized. As she left customs, she made it a point to flip off the customs agents. A couple of days later, they took her car.

[Equine1952]

Why do I think the theme song for the Inside The Beltway crowd will be “Casey Jones” by the Grateful Dead?

[the_daug]

$66.50 a gram.

[ConservativeStatement]

I feel like cranking Pat Travers.

[Nailbiter]

PERHAPS A CONSEQUENCE OF BETTER SOUTHERN BORDER CONTROL

[golux]

This is not a record-breaking bust size-wise; an L.A. seizure in the late 80s netted much more... But all of it would have been impossible without our cool interdiction LEA (the only kind I find I trust these days) and their DOGS! Woof!

[texas booster]

There used to be a law enforcement “street price sheet” that tracked the average price paid by users, gathered from those busted and other friends.

I noticed that, in Dallas at least, the more the mayor and city council hollered about More Enforcement that the price of common street drugs would go down, indicating greater supply.

I suspect that we have always had these large shipments coming into the East Coast, certainly so long as the Mob controlled the unions and the waterfront.

So some wise guy looses a billion and a half of nose powder. Suspect that this won't be the end of it.

Sounds like we have new FBI on the case, not like the ones from the previous 8 years of (intentional) mistakes.

[moovova]

I was gonna say...that’s only about 3 pounds.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#14. Re Bad news for Hollywood, but expect better movies”, or “but you still won’t be able to understand what they are saying most of the time”.

[Huskrrrr]

Der Kommisar’s in town.

[Jyotishi]

So true! It’s as if the actors never learned to act and speak their lines properly. Or maybe the reason is opioids.

[steve86]

“I was on roxys for pain. “

You’ve used that term before and I had to look it up: instant-release oxycodone.

Funny thing about cocaine — which I’ve never seen in person — is that would cure my severe chronic fatigue problem — for a few days after which I’d have worse problems.

[dp0622]

Yeah you would!!

It’s just white powder. Very boring looking.

It increases dopamine levels 200 to 300 percent.

Sex increases dopamine levels to 200 percent or a little more.

Difference is how they affect dopamine.

Cocaine blocks the reuptake of dopamine. So it stays with you longer.

Roxys
oxys
percs
xanax
klonopin
morphine
heroin
wellbutrin (very DANGEROUS to shoot up as it eats your skins. It is an antidepressant but works on dopamine receptors and thus is called “the poor man’s cocaine”

ALL bad news.

I know people need some of these (the legal ones) but you gotta be careful because addiction comes hard and fast.

There’s a LOT of money to be made. Too staggering to believe.

But they also give 10 year sentences like candy for drug possession these days, esp. roxys and xanax etc.

I am sorry you deal with chronic fatigue. Did you try ritalin?

[PraiseTheLord]

I always wonder in these instances, about thyroid function.

It takes away pep and energy when low. So easy to tell, just take a little bit of an innocent pill to tell. I hear they empty old folks homes when they try. some /s here...

But Dr’s treat thyroid med like it caused cancer or something. They are SO HESITANT TO RAISE A DOSE, so stupid.

When in fact it has nothing bad about it. Lots of times I have taken a little too much, then backed off.

[21twelve]

“The feds should be legally equipped to take ships that are used to bring drugs here.”

In many (most?) states the Fish & Wildlife folks can take ALL of your stuff that you are in possession of if caught poaching, over-the-limit, etc. I would hope though that they don’t treat the guy with 51 sunfish (limit is 50) the same as some guy with 6 deer livers (and the rest of the deer laying rotting in the woods).

[magua]

Wall Street could have a down week. Other articles say that feeder boats were supplying this vessel with large packages of cocaine. The captain had to know and the owners had to know its not just two crewmen.

[nathanbedford]

WARREN BUFFETT AND ADAM SMITH ON THE WAR ON DRUGS

We all can recite the old bromide about the definition of insanity.

It seems this thread is preoccupied with interdicting supply of drugs and some minor tactical moves that have been done countless times before, confiscating the boat or the vehicle used in transportation seems to be the flavor of the day.

Here is a reply I posted on May 12, 2014, and ever since then we have been doing more of the same expecting different results:

FEDS SEEK PRISON FOR RURAL WASHINGTON POT GROWERS

5/12/2014 6:38:28 AM · 18 of 29

If you want to know why the war on drugs is lost start thinking about it the way Adam Smith and Warren Buffett would think about it. Adam Smith would talk about the law of supply and demand and he tells us that when the demand goes up so does the price; when supply goes down, the price goes up. When the demand is inelastic, that is, when it is the product of addiction, the price curve is even more radical in its upward thrust when supply is reduced. Therefore, the more the government succeeds in interdicting the supply of addictive drugs, the more it increases the price and thereby increases the incentive to increase supply. The more the government succeeds, the more it must fail.

That is why drug smugglers and dealers are so wonderfully inventive in evading the law and will ever continue to be so unless you want to live in North Korea.

Without putting words in Warren Buffett's mouth, his criteria for investing in an enterprise are well-known. He wants a company with a unique product and a huge market potential. What better than an addictive drug? He wants a company with high barriers to entry against competition. What better barrier than the law and what better barriers than drug enforcement agencies raiding your competition? And if competition becomes too serious, this business model says you simply eliminate it by murdering them.

Buffett would be very intrigued by the idea that costs are extremely low, markup extremely high, and the price is ever supported by the government! By making drugs illegal, the government in effect has enacted price supports. By selling into an inelastic demand of addicts, the market, as well as price, are virtually guaranteed.

Because the price is high, addicts are incentivized to push the drugs onto others in order to addict them, to create a mini market that funds their own addiction. What a wonderful business model! On the macro level, it is a multilevel marketing scheme on steroids, or should I say, powered by addiction, and supported by the government.

Meanwhile, this wonderful marketing scheme generates so much money that corruption is inevitable. Worse, our enemies in the Muslim world and elsewhere have exploited this market to our disadvantage and national security peril. Meanwhile, our only politically correct response is a full-throated roar: "do more of the same."

(The result we will get this time: we just boosted the price and therefore the incentive to deal drugs by $1 billion)

[Clutch Martin]

“This is a good time to open private drug rehab centers for the hooked elite in Washington and Hollywood.”

I understand that PRC has a foolproof rehab program with a 100% success rate.