Technology needs watching
There is an EU-funded project that is looking at the issues involved in Detection Technologies, Counter-Terrorism, Ethics, and Human Rights called DETECTER, see their website:http://www.detecter.bham.ac.uk/ . This has some fascinating links. Some of the technology on offer, at R&D stage, was bizarre and needed some reality injected into discussions.
U.S. drug cartel crackdown
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34466436...ews-americas//
U.S. drug cartel crackdown misses the money
Criminals find a variety of ways to funnel billions into Mexico each year
Quote:
"This is the brilliance of the drug cartels. They pay ordinary people to get cash across the border for them, and then easily launder it into working capital to build and expand their violent and illicit operations," said Louise Shelley, who directs the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University.
Interesting article
Quote:
They seized $16 million in 10 years? That's absolutely nothing. That doesn't amount to a deterrent. That is an unsuccessful effort," he said. "We haven't begun to curtail the flow of illicit money generated by the cartels, and as a consequence of that we have not begun to curtail the drug trade."
Out of an estimated 25 billion a year.
The problem that prevents the problem from being solved,
Quote:
Once the money gets to Mexico, the cartels put it to work. About 10 percent of Mexico's economy — the world's 13th largest — is based on cartel operations, analysts say.
As a result, lawmakers have refused to pass anti-laundering laws such as reporting requirements when people pay cash for mansions and luxury cars or regulations for salaries paid in cash.
Economic targeting or just business?
Sunday morning quarterbacking...
Quote:
The theft is both a symbolic and financial blow to the Mexican government. Taxes paid by Pemex account for 40 percent of the federal budget.
Mexico's oil industry is already in the hurt locker due to their fields becoming less and less productive, so any additional dents in this business which accounts for 40% of their federal budget is a significant risk to Mexico's National Security.
Quote:
Mexico has launched an all-out campaign to defend the pipelines, drawing in the army, the attorney general's office, the Interior Ministry and the customs service. During the past two years, the government has conducted helicopter overflights, installed electronic detection devices inside the pipelines and beefed up Pemex's private security force.
Security forces guarding pipelines are not chasing drug cartels, so this is a double win for the cartels (oil profits and diverting security forces)
Quote:
Suárez estimates that Pemex will spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three years defending its pipelines. With the company's maintenance staff overwhelmed, Pemex assembled 20-man teams this year to repair breaches caused by theft.
Who pays for this in the long run? Oil prices will have to go up, so the Cartels will even make more money.
Quote:
Pemex sent out a call for help to the federal government in 2007. In June that year, Mexican customs officials informed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that they had discovered dozens of Mexican companies that appeared to be conspiring with U.S. firms to export stolen petroleum products across the border.
Working closely with the Mexican customs service, ICE investigators said, they soon uncovered a network of Mexican and American companies that shipped stolen oil to the United States in tankers, stored it in aboveground containers in Texas and then shipped it in barges to end users in the United States.
With oil prices then at record highs, the scheme allowed U.S. companies to buy petroleum products at below-market value.
Of course oil prices are not currently at record highs, and they have been falling (although that is forecasted to stop soon), so I wonder if oil prices decrease enough if it will make illegal sells unprofitable, or not worth the risk? However, decreased oil prices would probably hurt the government of Mexico even more.
U.S. companies in bed with organized crime? Who is really surprised?
Booby traps target California Police
Interesting increase in acts of intimidation.
v/r
Mike
Booby traps targeting California police lead to $200K reward offerEmanuella Grinberg, CNN
Quote:
On December 31, 2009, the unmarked headquarters of the Hemet Gang Task Force was targeted by someone who redirected the natural gas line on the roof into the building, filling up the office with deadly gas. Two task force members entering the office smelled gas and backed away before flipping the light switch and potentially causing the building to explode.
On February 23, a task force member at the Hemet headquarters opened a security gate outside the building, which launched a homemade zip gun attached to the gate. The weapon fired, missing the officer's head by inches.
The headquarters has since been moved to an undisclosed location, where extra security precautions are being taken, Hall said.
On March 5, 2010, criminals targeted a task force member who had parked an unmarked police car in front of a convenience store in Hemet. The officer found what appeared to be a homemade pipe bomb hidden underneath the vehicle.
Splinter Gangs Wage War in Acapulco
Splinter Gangs Wage War in Acapulco
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