Posted by PatJ. on January 28, 2001, at 18:32:07
In reply to Domestic Trafficking, posted by PatJ. on January 28, 2001, at 18:25:35
Whether one thinks that illegal drugs should be legal or should not be legal, one needs to take the fact into consideration that he or she is supporting this type of activity indirectly when he or she uses illegal drugs:
OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS
Background: For decades, the trafficking of drugs within the United States was principally controlled by traditional organized crime groups that lived and operated inside the country. According to the 1986 President's Commission on Law Enforcement, from the 1950s to the 1970s, La Cosa Nostra "controlled an estimated 95 percent of all the heroin entering New York City, as well as most of the heroin distributed throughout the United States."In a drug trafficking network that became known as the French Connection, New York City-based crime families purchased heroin from Corsican sources, who worked with French sailors operating from Marseilles, to transship the drug directly to the United States. Ultimately, the heroin was distributed throughout the United States by domestic organized crime families to street-level dealers working in low-income, minority communities. However, in 1972, the French Connection was effectively dismantled by French and U.S. drug agents, ending the domestic mafia's monopoly on heroin distribution in the United States.
The demise of the French Connection, coupled with the subsequent emergence of criminal syndicates based in Colombia, marked significant evolution in the international drug trade. These new traffickers introduced cocaine into the United States on a massive scale, launching unparalleled waves of drug crimes and violence. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the international crime syndicates continued to increase their wealth and dominance over the U.S. drug trade, overshadowing the domestic crime families.
Today, the traffic in illegal drugs, from manufacture to final street-level sale, is controlled by international organized crime syndicates from Colombia, Mexico, and other countries. From their headquarters overseas, foreign drug lords produce and distribute unprecedented volumes of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana throughout the United States.
These traffickers model their operations after international terrorist groups. They maintain tight control of their workers through highly compartmentalized cell structures that separate production, shipment, distribution, money laundering, communications, security, and recruitment. Traffickers have at their disposal the most technologically advanced airplanes, boats, vehicles, radar, communications equipment, and weapons that money can buy. They have also established vast counterintelligence capabilities and transportation networks.
Today's international criminal organizations pose a greater challenge to law enforcement than any pervious criminal group in our history. While there are numerous characteristics that these international groups have in common with traditional organized crime -- their penchant for violence and their reliance on corruption and intimidation as tools of their business -- their sheer power, influence, and sophistication put them in a category by themselves. Whereas traditional mafia families would corrupt officers and judges, today's international drug organizations corrupt entire institutions of government.
The DEA continually demonstrates its ability and willingness to fight corruption and terrorism by international drug traffickers. For example, the DEA worked openly with the Colombian National Police (CNP) to capture Pablo Escobar, a leader of the infamous Medellin cartel, who was responsible for waging a campaign of terror and bribery. These efforts ultimately led to the death of Escobar during a shoot-out with the CNP.
Despite significant law enforcement successes in dismantling several major international trafficking organizations, international criminal groups continue to pose a significant threat to the welfare of the American people. The DEA, in cooperation with foreign, state, local, and federal counterparts, is taking aggressive action, both internationally and domestically, to combat these organizations and repair the damage they have inflicted on citizens and communities in the United States.
poster:PatJ.
thread:52766
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010122/msgs/52789.html