Well, some police raided one, and some of the pictures are found at the link: http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=133200&p=3&topicID=35778276 Kinda makes me wish I was a drug lord. It's kinda amazing that the guy just kept accumulating money. Almost like an obsession. If I came into that much cash, I'd diversify and try to get out of such a dangerous industry. Even if you happen to be at the very top, eventually, the law of averages catches up with you and you end up getting caught or someone from the inside sees all that and wants to take a piece.
The final gun picture with the racks of them..... wow..... And the cash. It was like they were using it for insulation. Certainly had a thing for gold plated guns. I bet they found a DVD copy of The Man with the Golden Gun.
I'm not sure that would solve the problem. It doesn't seem like there would be any really serious problems with legalizing marijuana, but these guys are not interested in a particular type of drug. They are simply interested in making money. The end of Prohibition was supposed to put a stop to this kind of oranized crime. It didn't, because it simply took time for the crooks to adapt to a new market (which they helped create, I have no doubt, by encouraging the use of new stuff). If marijuana is legal but cocaine isn't, they'll simply furnish coke, for example. And I'm not sure that legalizing all drugs is the best option. That would require various laws to prevent undue harm to innocents, and too many people would be unhappy with the restrictions on liberty that such new laws would introduce. I am not opposed to legalizing marijuana, but I am not all convinced that will be the magic solution to organized crime, drug runners from Mexico, and all that sort of thing that people are claiming. It would simply require them to shift their market.
Harder to find a market for coke, though, even if you promote it. At the very least, legalising maruijana will reduce the size of the problem.
It would solve this problem, which is a costly one - not only economically, but there's a collateral cost in human life and personal liberty. The war on drugs has had no small effect on the erosion of our rights. I'm with Clyde: They need to quit fucking around with this bullshit and decriminalize/legalize ASAP. At the very least, it would provide a little breathing room before the next big criminal enterprise took hold.
What is it with drug lords and exotic animals? I watched a documentary about Escobar not too long ago and he essentially had his own zoo of exotic animals too!
I disagree. Alcohol prohibition generated alot of organized crime. Once it was repealed, not so much except for a very few bootleggers and moonshiners. The moonshiners are in it more for the novelty. Marijuana prohibition is just silly and stupid, and has led to more use of harder and more dangerous drugs. Pot is not a "gateway drug": it's the laws that are the gateway.
Should note that despite all the 'bad shit' that drug money brings, it also brings a good lot of clean money too. If you are a car salesman or a property developer and a few drug lords come to town, your business is going to sky rocket. Miami wouldn't be a shadow of the city it currently is, without its coke wars.
That's the exact reason you wouldn't come into that much cash as a drug dealer though, because you would have already taken your money and run long before you got to that stage.
Those photos were impressive ! Attention Stargate team: we found all the weapons you need for the Goa'uld. Man, that guy had more weapons than I've seen at gun shows. Hell, the value of the guns alone would be millions ! And the stupid Mexicans burned it down. Seriously, we do need to legalize it ASAP. We could bring down the debt in record time, plus we'd all be happy smokers.
Wow!!! Yes, any sane person would diversify him/herself to something that requires a lot less risk. But the problem is that the mentality these guys operate with makes that a bit of an impossibility. They get addicted to the adrenaline rush that the lifestyle calls for just as much as the money and drugs. Could you imagine a guy that would have a collection of gold plated guns like that sitting in on a board meeting in a company?
You don't actually think they burned the contents with the house do you? That house was emptied of all important evidence and then burnt down.
I'm saying that the house was worth a LOT and they could have sold it or used it. Burning it was just a waste.
In Texas and California, a lot of cartels are using salvage yards to launder money. They sell parts at a loss for cash, and record the sales price higher than it actually is. :| All this guy needed was a good salvage yard.
Sell it to who? Another drug lord? Not a lot of people in Mexico who could afford such a house and the ones who could are smart enough to have their own houses and stay away from a tainted property. There are valid reasons they burned it down. #1 To annoy it's owner. (was he even caught?) #2 To prevent anyone else from owning it. (Imagine what happens when the drug guy wants his house back) #3 To send a message to all the drug lords.
I think it's pretty safe to say that if you own lions, leopards and tigers for pets, you're a drug dealer. Cops should really look for that.
The big beltfed MG is a Third Reich era MG42. One of the most devastating machine guns ever. Ridiculous amount of money.
