
How the Cartels Work (2011) - dsr12
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-cartels-work-20110418
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iwwr
The DEA is not "powerless to stop them", it's actually empowered as an
organization by this growing threat. The police and government contractors are
a political constituency and political donors. As a societal problem, drug use
and criminality around it is a consequence of the drug war, the only way to
stop it is to end the war and start treating addicts as sick rather than
criminal.

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sandworm101
>> This article appeared in the September 17, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone.

Six and a bit years ago. That was before operation fast and furious came to
light. We now know that the DEA had several informants. They were paid and
seemingly informed on rival cartels. So many assertions in the OP were
probably incorrect even at the time.

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rbobby
> Borland recalls asking one sheriff how he knew that a courier had said what
> he was ordered to say when he was forced to call his boss and set up a
> meeting to trade the drugs. "That's what I told him to say," replied the
> sheriff, who spoke no Spanish.

That's pretty awful.

