Mexican Drug Cartels Smuggled Hundreds of Kilograms of Cocaine to Kansas City

[Dragunov]

Saturday, February 19, 2011 :: Staff infoZine
CommunityJury Convicts Five Defendants of Multi-million Dollar Drug-trafficking Conspiracy

Kansas City, MO - infoZine - Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that five Kansas City, Mo., residents were convicted by a federal jury today for their roles in one of the largest cocaine trafficking rings in the Kansas City area.

Evidence introduced during the trial indicated that the leader of the conspiracy, co-defendant Alejandro S. Corredor, also known as “Lou Lou,” “Rolo,” and “Alex,” 36, a citizen of Colombia residing in Kansas City, Mo., had connections with a Mexican drug cartel. Corredor called his supplier in Mexico to order cocaine to be delivered to the Kansas City metropolitan area. A normal load of cocaine would be from 20 to 50 kilograms, which was smuggled in vehicles driven to Kansas City from Mexico. After Corredor sold the cocaine and collected the money, he packaged the cash in bundles that were hidden in false compartments of various vehicles. The vehicles would then deliver the money to the El Paso, Texas, area, where it would be transported across the border into Mexico.

Law enforcement officers seized large quantities of cocaine and marijuana and millions of dollars in alleged drug proceeds during the investigation. For example, while executing a search warrant at a Kansas City, Mo., residence, officers seized 46 kilogram bundles of cocaine, $151,000, and a drug ledger. The ledger showed that during a four-month period of time this drug-trafficking organization distributed more than 800 kilograms of cocaine and received $10 million in drug proceeds.

Law enforcement officers also seized more than $1.6 million that was hidden in two vehicles on March 9, 2009. Agents were conducting surveillance at a Kansas City residence that day when they observed co-defendants hiding what they learned were bundles of cash inside the door panels of a Jeep Cherokee. The Jeep was stopped by a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol while traveling through Cass County, Mo. During a search of the Jeep and a Nissan that was being towed, the trooper recovered 163 bundles of cash. Among several other cash seizures, officers seized nearly $654,000 in a traffic stop on May 9, 2009, and more than $50,000 from another vehicle on May19, 2009, all of which was proceeds from the drug-trafficking conspiracy.

Read more: http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/46438/

[The Left Hand of God]

Close the border, simple solution and havve each state enforce their own border.

[Sloppy Joe2]

Close the border, simple solution and havve each state enforce their own border. yeah, thanks genius. It is a big ass border.

[emind]

I think that punishment by death for transporting and/or creating drugs will help a little. Other than that there is nothing you can do.

[IraGlacialis]

Close the border, simple solution and havve each state enforce their own border.
Besides audiem's obvious point that with the size of our border, it is inevitable that there would be at least a few slips (not saying that our international border shouldn't be bolstered), are you seriously suggesting that each state has border enforcement? Can you see the logistical nightmare that will present?
For example, consider that the metropolitan area in question (which isn't even near Mexico), as well as many metro areas, straddles two states. Can you see border enforcement going over well? Or having every single country road either blocked or enforced?

[Albatross]

http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2009/corredor.ind.htm

2 years old.

[The Left Hand of God]

yeah, thanks genius. It is a big ass border.

Well, you better get it to it then. http://i56.tinypic.com/30lhq93.jpg

[FlintHillBilly]

Thats where all that snow came from!

[Ought Six]

em:
"I think that punishment by death for transporting and/or creating drugs will help a little. Other than that there is nothing you can do."Legalize drugs and regulate and tax them just like alcohol. Most drugs could be sold at liquor stores. Pot could be sold like tobacco. Full strength coke and heroin could be distributed through pharmacies, which are better equipped to deal with such substances. The drug war ends, the cartels financially collapse, Mexico is saved from becoming a failed criminal state, nonviolent drug offenders can be released from prisons and jails, state and federal budgets have the tremendous financial burden of drug enforcement and offender incarceration lifted from them, new revenues are generated by drug taxes, and some of that money can be put into providing drug treatment program slots for those who want them. Drugs would be clean, not have toxic additives, and be of known strength. which would slash the number of ODs and relieve many of the worst health issues of addicts. Clean needles would be widely available, greatly reducing the rates of HIV and hep C. The police would no longer have a good reason to continue their ongoing trend towards militarization. And just as with the end of Prohibition, drug use would very briefly spike up, then drop back to its current levels (because people who really want drugs already get them anyways).

[Cerri]

em:Legalize drugs and regulate and tax them just like alcohol. Most drugs could be sold at liquor stores. Pot could be sold like tobacco. Full strength coke and heroin could be distributed through pharmacies, which are better equipped to deal with such substances. The drug war ends, the cartels financially collapse, Mexico is saved from becoming a failed criminal state, nonviolent drug offenders can be released from prisons and jails, state and federal budgets have the tremendous financial burden of drug enforcement and offender incarceration lifted from them, new revenues are generated by drug taxes, and some of that money can be put into providing drug treatment program slots for those who want them. Drugs would be clean, not have toxic additives, and be of known strength. which would slash the number of ODs and relieve many of the worst health issues of addicts. Clean needles would be widely available, greatly reducing the rates of HIV and hep C. The police would no longer have a good reason to continue their ongoing trend towards militarization. And just as with the end of Prohibition, drug use would very briefly spike up, then drop back to its current levels (because people who really want drugs already get them anyways).
Oh noes. Not in puritan 'mericuhh! Blasphemy!

[sheikhness]

em:Legalize drugs and regulate and tax them just like alcohol. Most drugs could be sold at liquor stores. Pot could be sold like tobacco. Full strength coke and heroin could be distributed through pharmacies, which are better equipped to deal with such substances. The drug war ends, the cartels financially collapse, Mexico is saved from becoming a failed criminal state, nonviolent drug offenders can be released from prisons and jails, state and federal budgets have the tremendous financial burden of drug enforcement and offender incarceration lifted from them, new revenues are generated by drug taxes, and some of that money can be put into providing drug treatment program slots for those who want them. Drugs would be clean, not have toxic additives, and be of known strength. which would slash the number of ODs and relieve many of the worst health issues of addicts. Clean needles would be widely available, greatly reducing the rates of HIV and hep C. The police would no longer have a good reason to continue their ongoing trend towards militarization. And just as with the end of Prohibition, drug use would very briefly spike up, then drop back to its current levels (because people who really want drugs already get them anyways).

Every system has a basic tendency to try to sustain itself and find reasoning for its existance even when there are none. So, fat chance of the above happening. So called war on drugs is profitable to so many people on so many levels that they just won't give up on that cash cow.