[PieterCasparzen]

Just ponder what the impunity is worth to the largest drug networks, that their head guy is allowed to launder his money for a fee.

If need be, someone from CIA can make a call and say “well, you can’t touch him, he’s a CIA asset. This is a national security issue, case closed”.

Think what that is worth. It effectively makes the drug gangs working for their protectors.

And any time there are problems that bother the elites a little too much, US law enforcement and US military shows up to “rid some small country of some evil tyrant”. Everyone in the US political machinery looks like a hero. Problem solved, they simply get a new “high level dealer”. Not only is it not impossible to control the illegal drug business, it’s quite easy if you’re in the right position.

[SampleMan]

I'd say it would be worth a very small fraction of the cost of our operations in Afghanistan. You are talking about the equivalent of a secret plot to control Walmart, so that you can smuggle M&Ms out the back door without getting caught.

Now if you want to talk about how much tinfoil has been sold to gullible conspiracy theorists, I'm all ears.