Drugs & US Law Enforcement (2006-2017)

[davidbfpo]

An excellent Military Review (latest issue) article on the prospects for peace:http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/Military...831_art010.pdf

[AdamG]

Colombia’s government and the largest rebel group in the country have reached a deal to end more than 50 years of conflict, the two sides announced Wednesday, paving the way for an end to the longest running war in the Americas.

For four years, the Colombian government and the rebels have been locked in negotiations to end the conflict. Time and again, they have emerged from the negotiating table to assure a weary public that another impasse had been eliminated, another hurdle cleared.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/wo...one-share&_r=0

[SWJ Blog]

‘Bandas Criminales’ and a Post-accord Colombia

[SWJ Blog]

Bullets for Ballots: A History of Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration in Colombia

[SWJ Blog]

Colombia and FARC Announce Deal to End the Americas’ Longest War

[SWJ Blog]

FARC Plays Dominoes as Drug Cartels Occupy Colombian Villages

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[Sergeant T]

Very long article in Rolling Stone. They definitely went for quantity over quality, but an interesting read nonetheless. From the end of the article:

The drug war, in the end, has been undone in no small part by the sweeping and inflexible nature of its own metaphor. At the beginning, in the days of Escobar, the campaign was a war as seen from the situation room, a complicated assault that spanned multiple fronts, but one which had identifiable enemies and a goal. Today, the government's anti-drug effort resembles a war as seen from the trenches, an eternal slog, where victory seems not only unattainable but somehow beside the point. For the drug agents and veterans who busted Escobar, the last decade and a half have been a slow, agonizing history of defeat after defeat, the enemy shifting but never retreating. "You get frustrated," Joe Toft, a former DEA country attache in Colombia, tells me. "We've never had a true effort where the U.S. as a whole says, 'We're never going to crack this problem without a real demand-reduction program.' That's something that's just never happened."

[davidbfpo]

A long read and of course focussed on just the USA. Lots to learn and beware of "special interests", lobbyists and easy solution salesmen. Are there lessons to be learnt beyond the USA and places like Colombia & Mexico? Afghanistan has been a thread on SWJ before.

The film 'Traffic' is a very graphic, if slightly dated similar account.

I'd also recommned (again) the book 'From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies and Competitive Adaptation' by Michael Kenny, Pub. Penn State Univ Press 2007.

davidbfpo

[Tom OC]

I think the best criminological exposition of Prof. David Kennedy's "pulling levers" approach is in this law review article at Harvard. The rolling stone article makes mention of Kennedy's ideas being the lastest, greatest thing in the war on drugs strategy, and I have seen the way law enforcement embraces it, although in my opinion, an i2 approach would be better than the GIS approach in pulling levers. However, what's probably most interesting is the poor way criminologists conceive of outcomes. Prof. Kennedy actually thinks that in a properly-advertised abstinence regime, offenders will not only get arrested less often, but will start turning themselves in.

[selil]

Interesting intersection. Valparaiso University is next door.

[jonSlack]

GIOIA TAURO, ITALY -- Europe is fast overtaking the U.S. as the leading destination for the world's cocaine, and a single Italian mafia is largely responsible.

The 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate, a ruthless and mysterious network of 155 families born in the rough hills here in southern Italy's Calabria region, now dominates the European drug trade. By establishing direct ties with Colombian producers and building a multibillion-dollar empire that spans five continents, the syndicate has metamorphosed into one of the craftiest criminal gangs in the world, authorities say.

" 'Ndrangheta is king," said Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, a former Colombian interior minister who is his country's ambassador to Rome.

The 'Ndrangheta (pronounced en-DRAHN-geh-tah) peculiarly combines the modern skills of multinational-corporation high finance with a stubborn grip on archaic rural traditions. Some members live in garishly opulent villas outside Madrid and invest in bustling restaurants and hotels in Germany, whereas others, including key bosses, remain in the dreary, closed Calabrian mountain villages of their birth. It is a mafia of businessmen in Dolce & Gabbana, of sheepherders in scruffy woolens.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...ck=1&cset=true

[goesh]

I've wondered about legalizing small time marijuana use simply to free up more time for LE - the Gov. at all levels is so screwed up they probably couldn't even sell pot without costing the tax payers billions of dollars - the thought was limited sales, X number of joints per mo. per adult, with real control and tracking measure in place, would generate some additional revenue. However, if pirates sporting AKs can tie up portions of the US Navy, the Gov. can do little to impact the drug trade in any respect.

I like the cultural comments too and I remember LBJs war on poverty and certainly the war on drugs - both are still in full force.

[sgmgrumpy]

This documentary is airring again Wed Dec 23rd at 3PM EST again. A very well put together documentary. Period covered from early 1980s up through the 2008 cartel wars. A few narratives by current AFO Task Force members.

In the late 1980s the Arellano-Felix brothers take over the Tijuana Cartel. Using a network of tunnels, modified cars, boats and planes they flood the US with billions of dollars worth of drugs; quickly establishing themselves as the worlds largest smugglers of cocaine. To protect this business the brothers recruit and train an army of American gang bangers. When rival cartels attempt to muscle in on their business the result is a war that claims thousands of lives. Mexican and US law enforcement join forces to take the Brothers down but they're powerless to stop a wave of violence engulfing Tijuana.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.co...w#tab-Overview

[SWJ Blog]

Should U.S. Troops Fight the War on Drugs?

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[Bill Moore]

http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-couple-...182449463.html

Two former CIA employees whose Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.

"If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn't led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?" Adlynn Harte said in an interview Friday.

When law enforcement arrived, the family had just six plants — three tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants — growing in the basement, Harte said.

The suit also said deputies "made rude comments" and implied their son was using marijuana. A drug-sniffing dog was brought in to help, but deputies ultimately left after providing a receipt stating, "No items taken."

The war on marijuana drugs within our borders is largely stupid waste of resources, especially when it is directed aganist Ma and Pa shops growing their own marijuana (not organized crime promoting violence). However, when the police raid a family home based on unfounded suspicions of growing marijuana it is border line criminal. If raids like this are permited it is a much greater threat to our freedoms than someone growing marijuana in their house, much less growing tomatoes. If the cops had them under surveillance for months and knew a family lived there, why did they did need to conduct a SWAT like raid on the house instead of knocking on the door and serving a warrant? Our police in many respects have gotten out of control with these tactics. These tactics were designed for and are appropriate for hard targets, but not for to responding to suspected minor violations of the law.

If my family was terrorified by the police in this way without cause I would be seeking justice also. A law suit is one method of doing so, but heads would have to roll in this case to get satisfaction. The detective who submitted the warrant for approval to the judge who approved it need to be fired.

http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime...od-Kansas.html

After reviewing the crime rate in Leawood I'm beginning to think the poor SWAT team is bored and looking for an excuse to kick in a door.

[bourbon]

I fear that civil asset forfeiture is driving a lot of this. I think forfeiture funds have become a significant source of budgetary funding for police departments in many states, creating incentives to seize property from the criminal low-hanging fruit (Ma and Pa Stoner).

The proliferation of SWAT teams across our country is also troublesome. At the least – on a practical level – can these smaller departments devote adequate resources to train and equip these units?

Is there a connection between the boom in civil asset forfeiture since the 80's/90's and the proliferation of SWAT units?

[davidbfpo]

This level of LE activity has been a topic here before, IIRC over the use of SWAT teams, but the relevant thread eludes me.

Perhaps Erich Simmers will be able to comment? He has an interest in SWAT teams, albeit in a different context - on campus.

As this raid was part of two-state LE operation one wonders whether this was Leawood PD's only contribution?

The unstated implication is that Leawood PD relied on information from a gardening supplier's records; I would suggest another source is a call to Crimestoppers, quite possibly by a neighbour, someone with a grudge and of a classic "2+2+100".

Incidentally Leawood PD have an online public survey:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JSN6D85

[J Wolfsberger]

I fear that civil asset forfeiture is driving a lot of this. I think forfeiture funds have become a significant source of budgetary funding for police departments in many states, creating incentives to seize property from the criminal low-hanging fruit (Ma and Pa Stoner).

The proliferation of SWAT teams across our country is also troublesome. At the least – on a practical level – can these smaller departments devote adequate resources to train and equip these units?

Is there a connection between the boom in civil asset forfeiture since the 80's/90's and the proliferation of SWAT units?

After several decades, most people have wised up to the DUI scam. That's left a large hole in the operating budget for a lot of municipalities. Civil Asset Forfeiture does a nice job of closing that. Add in the need to justify all that expense for training a SWAT team, and the temptation to over react in order to over use in order to generate funds would be unbearable to an average person.

Fortunately, all our politicians are above average, and thus have the integrity and self discipline not to engage in such ... activities.

[slapout9]

Link to "Insanity: Four Decades Of US Counter Drug Strategy"

http://strategicstudiesinstitute.arm...cfm?pubID=1143

[davidbfpo]

Slap,

That SSI paper is a good catch. Apart form the content and arguments made, it was the author's background that is noteworthy:

...served most recently as the Director of he National Drugs Intelligence Centre.

He overturns quite a few DoD and other agency programmes as worthless, notably crop destruction and interdiction.

Alas I fear few on capitol Hill will be reading or listening to such arguments.