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Unsurprising. Over 90% of the fentanyl seizures at the border aren't immigrants, but are Americans in American cars.
by bdcravens 4y ago
Unsurprising. Over 90% of the fentanyl seizures at the border aren't immigrants, but are Americans in American cars.
- vorpalhex 4y agoThe cartels have used Americans as mules since cocaine took off. Americans are less likely to be searched, and while more expensive to be bribed, this is usually better than getting the shipment lost.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoMight be stepping up efforts? Just came back to the US from Mexico (Yucatán) with partner and kids, had to make a drug dog walk (you walk at a steady pace as the drug dogs are exposed to you during the 10 meter walk) in the terminal.
- api_or_ipa 4y agoNot sure that's a drug dog. More likely simply a dog trained to sniff explosives. I know this because I've been made to walk the dog walk while unknowingly carrying things I should not have been carrying. The dogs never suspected a thing.
- mike_d 4y agoNot all dogs are trained on all drugs. I once met a dog that was only trained on various substances cartels use to mask the smell of drugs.
- timemct 4y agoI think that's been the practice for sometime now; we had to do the same thing at Puerto Vallarta's airport a few years back.
- sparrish 4y agoI had to do something similar in the Denver airport recently.
- notch898a 4y agoThey're really stepping up. Last year they dragged me into a hospital in cuffs and told the doctors to "inspect" inside my GI tract. That was a better part of a day affair along with a federal warrant and the works. A dog never even alerted (and even verbally told so by CBP, although the warrant lied and said otherwise). They also have a network of hospitals with staff openly hostile to tourists, who are fine acting even without a warrant or consent and a complaint to the state board results in the medical professional boards telling you that a patient has no right to deny consent even without a court order.
- whimsicalism 4y agouh, what? what was the lead up to this?
- notch898a 4y agoFew hours walking around in a border town and eating lunch from what I recall. When I crossed back there were a whole team of people working me over and HSI got involved. No idea what triggered them. When they found nothing they sent the debt collectors chasing me for the hospital bill, obviously that won't be paid so I look forward to the lawsuit. edit: to note I don't know If I'm actually going to be sued, just will definitely find it humorous if they do so.
- anigbrowl 4y agoI would guess that the very temporary nature of your trip looked like you were just there to collect something and come right back. None of which justifies the subsequent outcome. Good luck in your lawsuit.
- vorpalhex 4y agoThis almost sounds like a combo of bad profiling software that flagged you and then parallel construction using the dog as cover. If you have the time and all, definitely start throwing lawsuits and hit hard in discovery.
- 4y ago
- jnsie 4y agoHave had to do the drug dog walk the last few times I flew out of JFK. It seems to move lines much quicker and allows laptops, etc. to stay in bags going through the scanners. Think it's something we'll see more and more of, which is fine by me but they don't make much allowance for children who have no idea what is going on, in my experience (try telling two young kids that they have to walk side by side at a set pace and not touch the doggy)
- P_I_Staker 4y agoWhy are you fine with strong armed, authoritarian policies that target vulnerable populations while leaving the architects of death unharmed? The problem with poisoned drugs was created by doctors, corporations, the police, and politicians. Cartel king pins, plus smaller "mom & pop shops" (~$10ks-millions operations) play their role, but the vast majority of people caught will be stupid and/or desperate smucks, who have done practically nothing. These will be the people doing life sentences. The cartels leaders almost always get away (until maybe they die). The "mom & pop" shops I mentioned, often quite large in their own respect do get busted from time to time... however the majority of time in prison will be done by pawns, especially from these types of busts. Then the government spikes the ball and does a victory dance, while most of society is "fine" with it... yet things consistently get worse. More violence, more dirty money, corruption, overdoses, etc.
- jnsie 4y agoPlease don't twist my words. You know I didn't say anything of the sort and yours is a bad faith response. I will not engage.
- P_I_Staker 4y agoYou just did. You engaged. This is valid criticism, and not at all in bad faith.
- HWR_14 4y agoI actually thought the economics worked out that lost shipments were kind of irrelevant. There was so much south of the border and so little (percentage-wise) needed to make it through to sate demand.
- anigbrowl 4y agoNot that expensive. This dumbass did it for the princely sum of 4000 pesos (~$220), then killed himself rather than face trial. He had 5 kids too. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/von-nukem-suicide-drug-charges/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/von-nukem-suicide-drug-cha...
- vorpalhex 4y agoThe wrong way to think about bribery is as a calculated payoff. Instead it's a spur of the moment thing. You are headed home, tickets already paid for, and then someone asks if you want to make a quick $200 real easy. This isn't always how it goes down, but you can imagine how an impulsive person may over react to a monetary reward and thus accept very little compensation. If you run the risk assessment, you aren't going to take the deal!
- anigbrowl 4y agoI guess. I'd be instantly suspicious, but he doesn't seem like a person of good judgment to start with. It's sad that he didn't have the wit or the character to plead guilty and try to straighten his life out for the sake of his family.
- thephyber 4y ago> I'd be instantly suspicious It’s their job to get extremely good at being less suspicious. The more rejections they get, the more they refine their approach, their appearance, their story, etc. I try to avoid giving credit to my ego for not falling for a scam/con (yet!) when capitalism and evolution are both optimized for finding efficient workarounds for any hurdle. Given enough attempts and enough time, capitalism will corrupt anyone and everyone.
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- hgsgm 4y ago
- celdon25 4y agoDid you read the article? This wasn’t someone driving a car across the border.
- bdcravens 4y agoThat's not the point - the point is that motivated Americans are the ones driving the fentanyl epidemic.
- oh_sigh 4y agoOr maybe Americans are overwhelmingly trying to smuggle across border crossings because traditionally Americans get less inspection than non-americans, whereas non nationals choose other methods(tunnels, drones, boats, other non-border zone crossings, mail/parcels, etc).
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- scarface74 4y ago[flagged]
- anon291 4y ago[flagged]
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- thephyber 4y agoYour observation is on point. People are strategically focusing our outrage. Political tribes need simple monsters/bogeymen. Their leaders (politicians, government officials, corporate leaders, and even police union executives) each use PR in different ways to focus their constituents’ attention.
- MarcoZavala 4y ago[dead]
- chrisco255 4y agoYou can't claim by that stat that 90% of the fentanyl is brought in by American citizens through regulated ports of entry. By the very nature of illegal smuggling via illegal border crossings, you can't even know what percentage of fentanyl smugglers or fentanyl supply is captured.
- cr1895 4y ago> You can't claim by that stat that 90% of the fentanyl is brought in by American citizens through regulated ports of entry. They quite literally did not make that claim.
- chrisco255 4y agoYeah they did, when they started it with "not surprising" implying that it was statistically likely.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kevviiinn 4y agoYou also can't know how much gets through legal border crossings. What you have posted is a non-statement
- bena 4y agoTheir claim is that of the fentanyl seized at the border, 90% of that is from Americans in American cars. The other 10% would be from other sources. That does not include: Fentanyl seized at locations other than the border. Which we would know about. Fentanyl manufactured in the United States. Fentanyl in hospitals and other regulated areas. Fentanyl not seized at all. So they aren't making a claim about all fentanyl. They are making a claim of a certain segment of fentanyl.
- ASalazarMX 4y agoTrue, because many of those smugglers also smuggle military-grade firearms back to Mexico. It's very risky, but also very easy money. Sometimes there are enhanced controls to detect smuggling, but I'd bet anything they have well-bribed moles who warn the smugglers when that happens.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoSo we're already at gig-smuggling now?
- alexchantavy 4y agoThere was another article posted here that said the cartel is now using a gig work like model to be more decentralized. Can't find it though.
- SilasX 4y agoMaybe California could prosecute them under the new rules about contractor misclassification!
- WJW 4y agoYou say "already" but offering random people money for doing crime is at least several centuries old.
- mike_d 4y agoMost of the guns smuggled into Mexico from the United States are status guns. Think unique guns you'd find in popular video games, gold plated, old west revolvers and antiques, etc. Practically it is much easier for cartels to buy thousands of rifles from Africa or the Middle East than to try and get them across the border from the US. Handguns are trivial to source directly from Chinese factories producing Glock and 1911 knockoffs. Heck, you can order every part individually to assemble a Glock directly from Wish.com if you know what to search for.
- 4y ago
- Scoundreller 4y agoDoesn’t that suggest using Americans as your mules is the riskiest? Ima think most volume is moved via cargo or tunnels.
- fauxpause_ 4y agoIt does not suggest that. Sending with non Americans may simply be so likely to fail that it’s not worth trying.
- olivermarks 4y agoBizarre thread. The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels run China origin fentanyl in California. It is an enormous, industrial scale operation.
- olivermarks 4y agoI had a young relative I chased around to try and get clean for years before he OD'd on opioids in a bay area Air BnB with his girlfriend. He would order laminated 'diving certificates' with drugs encased in them by mail, and other postal deliveries that were clearly really drug shipments. There is little reason for mules when 18 wheelers are bringing in hidden drug shipments from Mexico and the postal service are delivering deadly drugs from India as was the case with the San Jose police union dealer.
- TulliusCicero 4y agoNo, the relevant stat would be % likelihood of being caught for Americans vs non-Americans. Even if 90% of the people caught are Americans, if the number of Americans actually doing the smuggling outnumber non-Americans 20x, then that means they're lower-risk.
- bruceb 4y agoWhere does this stat come from? At the border or border checkpoint? These are very different.
- MrBuddyCasino 4y ago[flagged]
- Apocryphon 4y agoHave you seen her picture?