DEA Busts Coast-To-Coast Home Delivery Drug Ring

[Breeze54]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/9683363/detail.html

DEA Busts Coast-To-Coast Home Delivery Drug Ring

More Than 130 Suspects Arrested

POSTED: 3:13 pm EDT August 15, 2006

WASHINGTON --

Federal agents arrested more than 130 alleged drug traffickers from coast to coast Tuesday who U.S. officials said smuggled heroin from Mexico and offered phone-up home delivery like a takeout pizza shop.

Beginning before dawn, Drug Enforcement Administration agents conducted arrest raids and searches, seeking up to 150 people, about half of them illegal immigrants, according to senior drug enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the official announcement.

By early afternoon, the investigation had produced 131 arrests in 15 cities, from Charleston, S.C., to Los Angeles, based on 10 federal indictments and state charges, the officials said.

Known as Operation Black Gold Rush, the investigation was being described at an afternoon news conference here by Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher and deputy DEA administrator Michele Leonhart. Officials gave this account of how the ring operated:

The ring grew its own poppies and refined them in Mexico and smuggled an unusually pure variety of black tar heroin across the U.S.-Mexican border, mostly in Arizona, with couriers on foot or in vehicles. Mexican black tar heroin, a dark and sticky substance, is usually only about 30-40 percent pure, well below the purity of Colombian heroin. But among the more than 37 pounds of heroin seized in this case, some was 85 percent pure," officials said.
Among other marketing strategies, the gang preyed on recovering heroin addicts. It sent street dealers out from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and operated outside methadone clinics where addicts receive treatment.

more at link...

[Webster Green]

1. Bummer...

DEA thugs are just another big waste of taxpayer's money.

Legalize it!

[Breeze54]

4. Legalize heroin?

I don't agree.
I think it's despicable to be outside a methadone clinic,
pushing it to people trying to kick it!

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Govt. should be giving it away for free

Junkies can live ok lives if they aren't reduced to crime. No one would deal if the free supply undercut the price to the point where it wasn't profitable.

[Breeze54]

8. I had a friend who was a junk addict.

She OD'd. DOA.

She didn't have an "ok" life nor did her kids....

[Jed Dilligan]

10. Well, obviously law enforcement didn't save her

She probably od'd because the quality of stuff on the streets varies so much.

I didn't say they "will" have an okay life but that they "can." And frankly, I'd rather see people kill themselves with government smack than get killed collaterally in drug raids.

[Breeze54]

13. Not for lack of trying, I assure you. n/t

[Jed Dilligan]

21. And "trying" is so much more important than

"succeeding" when it comes to controlling voluntary behavior, isn't it.

[Breeze54]

24. That isn't what I meant at all.

I was referring to the time she did in prison.
That's how they may have 'tried' to keep her away from the shit!
She went there for convictions of crimes, due to her addiction.
Not for doing heroin. I wasn't advocating anything with the law!
She did time, a few times, and parole and probation but that didn't stop her.
In the end she died. She was my friend and I still miss her so, give it a rest.
And I was there to pick up the pieces with her kids and it was fucking hard!
:grr: I saw and felt their pain. I don't really give a fuck what drugs people
choose to use, as long as it doesn't fuck up my life or kids lives.

PS. My comment about "not for lack of trying' was surly ...AT the law!!
As in it's a lost cause! Can't believe I have to explain that.

[Jed Dilligan]

25. Usually

People who come on here naysaying drug legalization using their friends/family as an example are pro-law enforcement.

Now I don't know exactly what you advocate... The friends and family I've lost to drugs, I blame their loss first on Nixon, Reagan, and others who started and have sustained the insane "War on Drugs."

[Breeze54]

26. I don't advocate anything.

I just don't like seeing anyone, a slave, to anything.
I don't know your age but I grew up and came of age during
the 70's and 80's.. during the wide usage of lsd25, coke, etc.
I fell thru a few 'windowpanes', in my day.
I'm not without first hand experience...

[Jed Dilligan]

27. So then you would admit the possibility

that legalizing and even distributing drugs to addicts might be a better approach than the status quo of enforcement and more enforcement?

If so, good for you.

I don't think addiction is a good thing, but I think it's much better handled as a health than a criminal problem. If your friend had gotten her junk from a government doctor instead of a criminal, she might still be alive today.

[Breeze54]

28. It's not a matter of admitting anything!

Gheesh! Clinics are better than jail, imho.
Why are you talking to me like I'm a friggin' cop?
I'm not!
I didn't vote for Nixon, Reagan, Bush I or II!!


OK? :shrug:







cripes....
:rofl:



ps. She went to a methadone clinic and then she quit going...
Personal choice, said she couldn't do it anymore.
She committed suicide.

[Jed Dilligan]

29. Well, if you don't have any opinions,

why did you disagree with mine in the first place?

[Breeze54]

30. oh brother....ok

Legalizing marijuana would be a good thing, imho. I don't think it's addictive.

Legalizing an addictive drug, like heroin, I think would be opening a huge can of worms.

As I said. No slaves.

[Jed Dilligan]

31. We'll never see the end of this argument.

So good night.

[Breeze54]

32. I didn't know it was an argument.

I think we both agree.
I think you and "sweet-whatever" have totally misread my replies.
Perhaps you're 'arguing' with the wrong person?
:shrug:

Have a good night. ;)

[Webster Green]

14. Bingo!.........Anyone else here ever heard of "Harm Reduction"..

The laws make no sense. There would be far fewer ODs with legalization, standardized doses and education as to the risks.

"Just Say No" is not the answer.

[Webster Green]

7. Perhaps those folks are despicable...

I have to agree that hanging out at the methadone clinic selling junk is pretty low. Legalizing the stuff would take those dealers out of the equation.

Just let people get high (or low) if they choose.

[sweetheart]

17. what about freedom?

It is a personal choice what medicines one chooses to take, between oneself and one's confidants.

When did you get involved?

[Breeze54]

18. I'm not following you.

When did I get 'involved"? Could you expand on that? TY! ;)

[sweetheart]

19. Your issues with heroin

Heroin is between a person and their choices.

If its not you, why are you concerned?

[Breeze54]

20. Heroin addiction affects

everyone around the addict. It isn't just between the person and their drug.

"why are you concerned?"
I don't want anymore of my friends to die, is that ok with you?
:shrug:

PS. BTW? I'm NOT on a soapbox.
I posted a story and replied with my opinion to another poster's response/opinion.
I think heroin addiction is a bad thing. Period.
Probably better not to use it, to begin with. JMO!

[sweetheart]

22. sounds like Freedom for those who agree with you

If you don't want to do heroin, don't do it.

If you don't want to be affected by it, then don't be.

Paying billions for a failed war to incarcerate people
forever who do not work and get free medical care for their trivails,
reailly is not justice. I hope you've a better solution when
you soap box criminalization.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Poor Rush Limbaugh and his corrupt republicon cronies

This is really going to cramp their "lifestyle" although it does clarify republicon "family values"

[Breeze54]

3. LMAO!! I forgot about him and his drug habit!

:rofl:

[mcscajun]

6. Doesn't look like there's any connection between this ring

and Oxycontin, etc. This is pure and simple, a heroin operation. I'm happy to see it's been busted.
It's just too bad this "home delivery" hadn't been arranged for more "organic" items. :smoke: I wouldn't mind that too much.

Marijuana should be legalized; Heroin? Nah.

[Webster Green]

11. Poppies are organic..

Opiates are great. The worst problem with them is the laws against them.

Of course, they are physically addicting. You just have to make sure you keep a nice supply on hand.

Not a popular opinion, I know.....but I think the world would be a better place if people simply minded their own beeswax!

People will always be trying to get high. Our brains are wired for these amazing gifts.

[mcscajun]

16. Poppies are organic. That little white powder is a few steps removed

from organic, and addictive.

I'm all for nature's finest herb, marijuana, wonderful and non-addictive.

[Breeze54]

12. I actually knew a guy, years ago,

from Queens, who had a pizza shop in NV and he did just that!
Would you like extra "oregano" with that order? ;)

[mcscajun]

15. Ah, the good old days.

:)

[MrCoffee]

9. These guys were delivering smack? What's the tipping etiquitte?

Lazy ass junkies! Get out there and score your own damn fix!