DEA: “Show us the money”…

The Drug Enforcement Agency put out a press release today, claiming the 2.06 MILLION DOLLARS (and a few hundred thousand in Euros and Pesos) seized last weekend, was somehow their success:

This record-setting feat was the result of tremendous police work by Mexican law enforcement in collaboration with DEA throughout the past year.

Every single news article I’ve found that mentions the DEA repeats the same press release, and the DEA’s claim that “methampetamine dealers on both sides of the border…” None, here or in Mexico, or anywhere else, make any mention of the DEA’s involvement.

It sounds like the DEA wants in on the payout (the seized cash will be going to the Mexican police, the Mexican prosecutor’s office and the Mexican Secretaria de Salud).

What did the DEA do exactly to earn a share of the booty?  I haven’t seen any mention — even in the self-congratulatory DEA press releases — of DEA involvement.  And the United States goverment hasn’t been particuarly concerned with smugging INTO Mexico.  Where else did the cash come from?

The U.S. government still doesn’t want to deal with the unpalatable truth that the SOURCE for the money and guns and the buyer are both THEIR problem, and they’re not real good at stopping them.  Besides, they have more money than the Mexican cops (and the Secretaria de Salud sure can use the cash).

So could I.  This site doesn’t get payoffs, or grants or even accept advertising.  The only way I can write it is by taking time away from other things (like paying jobs) and it depends entirely on donations. 

I live on almost nothing, but ALMOST isn’t going to keep the lights on, the phone connected and myself eating.