For those wanting to keep up on the Mexican drug wars, there's a long
article in the July 2 issue of The New Yorker. I recall earlier press
reports that the Mexican army had seized a remarkable about of meth.
From the article:
"In February, the Army announced that it had seized, in a "historic
bust," in Tlajomulco [Jalisco], fifteen tons of methamphetamine. The
street value of that much meth was, by the Army's figuring, some four
billion dollars. If true, that would make it the largest meth bust in
history. But was it true?...
"I tried to get to the bottom of a single bust--the "historic" meth-
lab raid in Tlajomulco that confiscated some our billion dollars'
worth of drugs. Were the drugs seized really worth that much? Well,
no. The more experts I consulted, the lower the number sank. Maybe it
was a billion, if the meth was pure. Then was it really fifteen tons
of "pure meth," as widely reported? Well, no. There had been some
confusion. There were precursor chemicals. A lot of equipment--gas
tanks, reactors. Maybe it was eleven pounds of pure meth. Eleven
pounds? Nobody wanted to speak on the record, but the spokesman for
the federal presecutor's office in Guadalajara, a young man named
Ulises Enríquez Camacho, finally said, "Yes, five kilos." Eleven
pounds. The fifteen tons had been methamphetamine ready for packing,
according to the Army. But it was not "finished product," and there
had been only five kilos of crystal. In the U.S., where meth is often
sold by the gram, that amount might be worth five hundred thousand
dollars. So the reported value had been inflated by a factor of eight
thousand?"
I hope the body count is not off by a factor of eight thousand.
--Mixon
----------------------------------------
I'm walking down the street with Leonardo da Vinci. He says, "The
things your science has created are indeed wonderful. You must explain
to me how everything works." That's when I wake up.
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