Soldiers and Law Enforcement Busted with Drugs

Tricky D · 05-12-2005, 03:51 PM

Kinda makes me sick...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/12/fbi.cocaine.stiing.ap/index.html

stevepaa · 05-12-2005, 07:23 PM

This is by probably far the cheapest way for the drug dealers to get the stuff into the country.

Dantilla · 05-12-2005, 07:29 PM

Some very harsh penalties are in order here.

FrayAdjacent911 · 05-12-2005, 07:30 PM

Money the great corrupter

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

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All 16 agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and corruption conspiracy, said Noel Hillman, a Justice Department official.

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Those who pleaded guilty were freed on their own recognizance.

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He said he would ask for an indefinite delay in sentencing.

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The defendants in the nearly 31/2-year-long sting were not arrested and agreed to cooperate with an investigation expected to bring more arrests and involve people from additional agencies,

They will all get off, the fed's want the big fish this time. So much for justice.

928ram · 05-13-2005, 05:05 AM

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They will all get off, the fed's want the big fish this time. So much for justice.

What a slap in the face for all the honest folks working beside these punks.

Jeff Higgins · 05-13-2005, 05:25 AM

The real tragedy here is that 16 more lives, and the lives of their families, have been ruined by the United States' failed drug policies. We will never stop the flow. As long as there are insane amounts of money to be made in this illicit trade, good, mostly honest folks will fall into this snare. The temptation is simply too great for some folks. Look at the jobs these people held - all public servants that aren't paid squat. A large part of their jobs was to try to stop veritable millionaires from plying their trade. I'm sure these folks know better than most of us how hopeless their task truly is. So if they can just get a small piece of it for themselves... no one will notice... We need to find a way to remove the outrageous profit motive from this trade so it no longer tempts otherwise good people. What we are doing now clearly is not working.

Tricky D · 05-13-2005, 06:39 AM

No, the tragedy is that the families of these people suffer because of the stupidity.

Extend you argument to any high profit illegal trade, say car theft & chop shops. Should we also legalize car theft?

Jims5543 · 05-13-2005, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tricky D
Kinda makes me sick...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/12/fbi.cocaine.sting.ap/index.html

This brings to mind the Conch Republic of the 80's. Most of the law enforcement was on the take down there during that time.

Tons of coke and weed came into the Us through the keys. When the DEA set up road blocks on US1 in Florida City the people of the keys formed the Conch Republic and succeeded from the USA for 5 minutes.

A couple of buddies of mine used to live in the keys in the 80's and the stories they can tell. Helicopters would swoop in and dump their load in the middle of the night, by morning, all that was left were the blue tarps spread out where the load was broke up and put into cars for their trips up the coast. This one guy would go and sweep the tarps off and get a couple of pounds of "product" off of them. Make a decent living selling it too.

If the cops were not directly involved they were at the least paid to turn their heads and ignore it all.

I heard stories about the Columbus Day regatta in Miami where Lawyers, Judges, Cops etc... were on monster yachts with tons of coke and hookers having a good old time.

That story does not surprise me at all. It sounds like the 80's all over again.

stevepaa · 07:20 AM

I am with Jeff on this one. Extending the argument to car thefts is illogical as the drug trade is like alcohol prohibition, and we know how that went. Alcohol, marijuana, coke , etc are all drugs that people will seek out. We need to get them off them in the same manner we help any alcohol addict.

carnutzzz · 05-13-2005, 07:27 AM

Tricky D- apples to oranges comparison.

Car theft involves stealing and damages to another person. Drug use only damages the user.

Big difference.

928ram · 05-13-2005, 08:13 AM

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Drug use only damages the user.

If only it were that easy...

alf · 05-13-2005, 08:42 AM

Take a look at the countries with little or no drug problems like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. If you are caught smuggling or dealing drugs you are executed.

I have personally witnessed 3 people sentenced to death by hanging for attempting to smuggle 40 kilos of pot to Singapore in '94. They died the very next day.

Tricky D · 05-13-2005, 09:09 AM

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Originally posted by carnutzzz

Car theft involves stealing and damages to another person. Drug use only damages the user.

Big difference.

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that no one else is affected. So the user's family isn't affected?

I disagree.

Jeff Higgins · 05-13-2005, 09:41 AM

So do we escalate our punishment to the death penalty? Hardly. Those countries are barbaric in their punishments for many other lesser crimes as well.

So do we start prosecuting folks for other self-destructive behaviors that affect their families in a similar fashion? Hardly. People make poor choices that affect their families and loved ones every day. They are family and social problems, not criminal problems. Treatment and guidance are the accepted methods of dealing with most of these poor choices.

Criminalization of drugs other than alcohol has done nothing to solve the problem. It has made criminals out of otherwise good people. Most of the supplemental criminal problems, like the smuggling these folks helped with, the murders motivated by the huge profits, and the like would dry up and go away if we dropped the criminalization. The billions we spend every year going after these kinds of people would be better spent treating the victims; the users and their families. Does anyone seriously think what we are doing now is working?

928ram · 05-13-2005, 09:59 AM

Isn't there a case in Indonesia of an Aussie woman in jail awaiting a life sentance for trafficing? The (her) story is that she was unknowingly used as a mule.

So we should allow these otherwise good people to all become heroin and crack addicts, rather than spend money on anti-drug operations? How wold that be a better way to deal with it (other than the increased death rates of "legal" users)?

stomachmonkey · 05-13-2005, 10:16 AM

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Originally posted by carnutzzz
Tricky D- apples to oranges comparison.

Car theft involves stealing and damages to another person. Drug use only damages the user.

Big difference.

You obviously have no direct experience/exposure to this world!

You could not be not be more wrong.

I can not think of another illegal activity that is more harmful to society on so many different levels.

Scott

alf · 12:02 PM

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Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
So do we escalate our punishment to the death penalty? Hardly. Those countries are barbaric in their punishments for many other lesser crimes as well.

Barbarism is a matter of perspective. Singapore in particular is a commomwealth country and most of its laws are derived from the UK's. Which of its law do you find barbaric?

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Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
So do we start prosecuting folks for other self-destructive behaviors that affect their families in a similar fashion? Hardly. People make poor choices that affect their families and loved ones every day. They are family and social problems, not criminal problems. Treatment and guidance are the accepted methods of dealing with most of these poor choices..[/B]

I am not saying that we prosecute the users, but rather the dealers and smugglers.

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[i]Criminalization of drugs other than alcohol has done nothing to solve the problem. It has made criminals out of otherwise good people. [/B]

Drug dealers and smugglers are good people caught in an unjust society that criminalizes their behaviour? Would you extend that same logic extend to all criminals?

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[i]Most of the supplemental criminal problems, like the smuggling these folks helped with, the murders motivated by the huge profits, and the like would dry up and go away if we dropped the criminalization. [/B]

And we will all be one happy drugged up nation. No thanks, remember the Opium War in China?

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[i]The billions we spend every year going after these kinds of people would be better spent treating the victims; the users and their families. Does anyone seriously think what we are doing now is working? [/B]

If my bath tub was overfilling, i would first turn off the tap before i start bucketing the water into the sink.

alf

ubiquity0 · 05-13-2005, 12:13 PM

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Originally posted by alf
Barbarism is a matter of perspective. Singapore in particular is a commomwealth country and most of its laws are derived from the UK's. Which of its law do you find barbaric?

I like the $500 fine for failing to flush a public toilet after use.

Jeff Higgins · 05-13-2005, 12:38 PM

Think Prohibition and all of the problems it caused. The people involved in the illegal alcohol trade back then were of the same ilk as the people involved in the illegal drug trade today. In fact many of the same criminal organizations just made the switch from one illegal commodity to the other. There are some very bad, very violent people associated with the distribution end of the drug trade today; there is no doubt about that. They are driven by the obscene profits available. I suspect, however, that most are not. They cannot afford the publicity, so to speak. Anyway, what do you do if you go to turn the tap off in the tub and the handle strips out? Just keep turning it and hope for the best as your bathroom, followed by your entire house floods? That's where we are today. We have been turning that handle for my entire life and for some time before. The handle stripped out years ago.