More Things We Wish the Government Would Please Not Do

You might think that T99's post, in which we learned about the Fed 'servicing' the needs of the banks, represents the low point of today's news about the functioning of our government. Perhaps it does; but there is, at least, some competition for the honor.
[A]gents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders, those officials said, to identify how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars?  That's not so bad....
[T]he former officials said that federal law enforcement agencies had to seek Justice Department approval to launder amounts greater than $10 million in any single operation. 
Wait, what?  You said "hundreds of thousands."  What happened to "hundreds of thousands"?  How'd we get to $10 million?
But they said that the cap was treated more as a guideline than a rule, and that it had been waived on many occasions....
So, on many occasions, they waived the rule limiting drug money laundering to not more than $10 million?

Well, at least if they're tracking that kind of money, it must be a highly effective operation.
So far there are few signs that following the money has disrupted the cartels’ operations, and little evidence that Mexican drug traffickers are feeling any serious financial pain.
*Sigh.*

10 comments:

DL Sly said...

*sigh*

That is not the 'four letter word' that comes to my mind.
^#@%^&#*@%^#%@!!!!

Texan99 said...

So we've got Fast & Furious with guns, and now with money. Time for the lawyers!

http://youtu.be/XgyMUChgcbU

MikeD said...

Grim,

I've got an OT link to send you, but I can't seem to find an email address anywhere. Is there somewhere you can point me to one?

Grim said...

It used to be embedded in the shield -- must have lost it in the crash of a few months back. It's grimbeornr At yahoo dot com -- note the "r" on the end of grimbeornr.

E Hines said...

Well, at least if they're tracking that kind of money, it must be a highly effective operation.
So far there are few signs that following the money has disrupted the cartels’ operations....


Apparently, DoJ's skill at tracking and controlling gun-running extends to money-running, also.

Even screenplay writers know to "follow the money."

Eric Hines

Anonymous said...

Can we deduct this foolishness from the State Department budget as "foreign aid" as well as whacking it from the DoJ's annual funds?

LittleRed1

Mark said...

LR1, hell will freeze first.

Grim said...

It's kind of an amazing response given the scale of the problem. For example, the article claims that 40,000 people have been killed in the drug war in Mexico since 2006. That's twice as many people as have been killed on all sides of the war in Afghanistan, even if you take your numbers from anti-war sites like this one.

douglas said...

As bad as I think this operation is, I don't think it's as bad as you might think- remember that money laundering involves giving your illicitly gained money to someone so you can get it back from an apparently licit source- minus some percentage for services rendered- so they didn't 'lose' the money, though they did pay someone to launder money, and at the amounts involved, not a trifling amount.

Mark said...

T99 is proving almost as evil as Cass - the devil!