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originally posted by: TrappedPrincess
No need to ask why this is happening, most of us already know the answer and it is glaringly obvious. The cartels have government officials bought and paid for at the highest level. No brainer really because anyone who actually cared about America and Americans would have put a stop to this long ago.
Big business and business as usual, nothing to see here. I remember awhile back there was a thread about how HSBC (major financial institution) got caught laundering money for the cartels. Caught red handed and do you think anyone went to Jail? Of course not they paid a fine and it was swept cleanly under the rug just like most truly important issues that we should be focusing on.
originally posted by: Aazadan
originally posted by: TrappedPrincess
No need to ask why this is happening, most of us already know the answer and it is glaringly obvious. The cartels have government officials bought and paid for at the highest level. No brainer really because anyone who actually cared about America and Americans would have put a stop to this long ago.
Big business and business as usual, nothing to see here. I remember awhile back there was a thread about how HSBC (major financial institution) got caught laundering money for the cartels. Caught red handed and do you think anyone went to Jail? Of course not they paid a fine and it was swept cleanly under the rug just like most truly important issues that we should be focusing on.
The cartels are very powerful. The fact is the US paid the Sinaloa's to police our border for us, in exchange for them keeping out the people we REALLY want to keep out, they get control of the border, can charge people to smuggle them in, and can bring in x drugs/year. The Sinaloa's have the largest border with the US, we probably made a similar deal with the Zeta's and others.
Lets put the cartel problem in perspective though: They're better armed and better funded than most world governments, they control more territory in Mexico than the Mexican government does, they have bought their way into US courts, and US officials are terrified of these guys. Also, the US cannot take the offensive on this. Because of their control over the Mexican government the US cannot get permission to move into Mexico and fight them on their soil and under Posse Comitatus we cannot fight them on our soil. It is a huge problem, and the reason you can tell it's huge and currently unfixable is that news of how large the problem is occasionally pops up like the Sinaloa member who testified he had an immunity deal with the CIA, or the banks launder all their money, and the news just goes away. No one wants to admit what's going on, but what can we do?
Do we cease recognizing Mexico as a state and run an armed invasion of what is on paper an ally? That sounds like an international clusterf*, and we pretty much blew our credibility in taking that type of action with Iraq.
This actually results in one of the best arguments for legalization. The cartels need to operate in the shadows, they can't actually compete in an above board business because they rely on violence rather than efficiency. If we make all of their products legal and start better funding treatment centers we can eliminate the black market profits and get rid of their influence.
originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
No they didn't. The DEA gave guns to Sinaloa (via Fast and Furious) in exchange for information about rival cartels (of which Zetas were of primary focus for Sinaloa....resulting in all the border violence). This is how Sinaloa goes from total obscurity to being the most powerful drug cartel on the planet (officially....unofficially its the CIA that is the largest).