Wall Street's Role in Narco-Trafficking

In this article, "Wall Street's Role in Narco-Trafficking" of 01 June 2011 by James Whitney, he asks us to imagine what our "reaction would be if the Mexican government agreed to pay Barack Obama $1.4 billion to deploy US troops and armored vehicles to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to conduct military operations, set up check points, and engage in fire-fights that end up killing 35,000 US civilians on the streets of American cities..."

He goes on to say that America's Mexican policy, The Merida Initiative, under the guise of the "War on Drugs," "undermines Mexican sovereignty, corrupted the political system, and militarized the country. It's also resulted in the violent deaths of thousands of mostly poor civilians. But Washington doesn't give a hoot about "collateral damage" as long as it can sell more weaponry, strengthen its free-trade regime, and sluice more drug profits into its big banks..."

Article at: www.counterpunch.org...

The article references a number of other writers who have written on the matter, and have highlighted the impact this "War on Drugs" has had on militarizing and controlling Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Here's one such reference about the scale of drug profits enabled by US banks:

"Take a look at this excerpt from an article by James Petras titled "How Drug Profits saved Capitalism" at Global Research. It's a great summary of the objectives that are shaping the policy:

"While the Pentagon arms the Mexican government and the US Drug Enforcement Agency enforces the ‘military solution’, the biggest US banks receive, launder and transfer hundreds of billions of dollars to the drug lords’ accounts, who then buy modern arms, pay private armies of assassins and corrupt untold numbers of political and law enforcement officials on both sides of the border....

“Drug profits, in the most basic sense, are secured through the ability of the cartels to launder and transfer billions of dollars through the US banking system. The scale and scope of the US banking-drug cartel alliance surpasses any other economic activity of the US private banking system. According to US Justice Department records, one bank alone laundered $378.3 billion dollars between May 1, 2004 and May 31, 2007 (The Guardian, May 11, 2011). Every major bank in the US has served as an active financial partner of the murderous drug cartels...

“If the major US banks are the financial engines which allow the billion dollar drug empires to operate, the White House, the US Congress and the law enforcement agencies are the basic protectors of these banks.....Laundering drug money is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for Wall Street; the banks charge hefty commissions on the transfer of drug profits, which they then lend to borrowing institutions at interest rates far above what – if any – they pay to drug trafficker depositors. Awash in sanitized drug profits, these US titans of the finance world can easily buy their own elected officials to perpetuate the system. ("How Drug Profits saved Capitalism" , James Petras, Global Research)"


**By the way, to the Moderator, perhaps there should be a Financial or Economic Forum for such specific topics as banking, Wall Street, the IMF, etc... (if one already exists, my apologies as I wasn't able to find it)

Holy Mackerel !!!!
I had no idea, it was this in-depth.
The whole frikkin government
is corrupt.

And if all of that dope stops tomorrow,
just how many zombies are we gonna
have roaming around looking for
fixes ???

Millions !!!

You can't cold turkey that many
at once without mass anarchy.

Funny I was at a picnic on Memorial Day and met someone who was stationed in Afghanistan as a private contractor hired by a company that was funded by the Dod, managed by the CIA.
His job was to guard poppy fields - against any and all threats, including our own troops.
The reason I asked him about this topic which we spoke about at great length is because 2 years ago I met another private contractor at a bar who said the exact same thing but I was skeptical.
Hearing it from 2 unrelated sources like this solidified my belief something bigger is going on. He had a phone full of pictures and his work mainly dealt with keeping rival farms from feuding. Such feuding would destabilize the area for most money they have is from opium production, which ironically comes back to the USA in tons as Heroin.

I guess they need to fund black projects somehow. . . and we thought our taxes paid for it!

Originally posted by aCurious1

“If the major US banks are the financial engines which allow the billion dollar drug empires to operate, the White House, the US Congress and the law enforcement agencies are the basic protectors of these banks.....Laundering drug money is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for Wall Street; the banks charge hefty commissions on the transfer of drug profits, which they then lend to borrowing institutions at interest rates far above what – if any – they pay to drug trafficker depositors. Awash in sanitized drug profits, these US titans of the finance world can easily buy their own elected officials to perpetuate the system. ("How Drug Profits saved Capitalism" , James Petras, Global Research)"

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs
www.abovetopsecret.com...
I think it is kind of a sensationalized headline but this article and thread backs up and gives detail to what you say here.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy has just released its 24-page report yesterday condemning the Drug War as having failed and with devastating consequences. I am just starting to read it,
www.globalcommissionondrugs.org...