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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEntire Florida Police Dept Busted Laundering Tens of Millions for International Drug Cartels
Mafia organization or police department? Hard to tell.Bal Harbour, FL The village of Bal Harbour, population 2,513, may have a tiny footprint on the northern tip of Miami Beach, but its police department had grand aspirations of going after international drug traffickers, and making a few million dollars while they were at it.
The Bal Harbour PD and the Glades County Sheriffs Office set up a giant money laundering scheme with the purported goal of busting drug cartels and stemming the surge of drug dealing going on in the area. But it all fell apart when federal investigators and the Miami-Herald found strange things going on.
The two-year operation, which took in more than $55 million from criminal groups, resulted in zero arrests but netted $2.4 million for the police posing as money launderers. Members of the 12-person task force traveled far and wide to carry out their deals, from Los Angeles to New York to Puerto Rico.
Along the way, the small-town cops got a taste of luxury as they used the money for first-class flights, luxury hotels, Mac computers and submachine guns. Meanwhile, the Bal Harbour PD and Glades County Sheriffs were buying all sorts of fancy new equipment.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/small-town-cops-set-giant-international-money-laundering-scheme-rake-millions-illegally/#oV5GIYtZREUTZZD5.99
underpants
(183,007 posts)We know his Deputies were on the take from coyotes.
Raster
(20,998 posts)...I am absolutely fucking appalled at what Arapaio and his band of racists and ruffians have done to the Sheriff's Department. Just appalled.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)silverweb
(16,402 posts)lpbk2713
(42,774 posts)And that grants a big assumption on my part that there ARE any good guys any more.
After they serve a few years they will retrieve their money from the Caymans and life
will be like they won the Powerball from there on.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)All of them. Every judge and office holder, every representative of any kind. I mean anywhere and everywhere across the nation.
If there is a little league game in your town you can just figure someone has tried to influence the umpire.
The cops are more interested in how they can enrich themselves than they are in enforcing actual law. The same can be said for office holders of every stripe.
Dustlawyer
(10,499 posts)They figure they can shine the Feds on, except they couldn't and got greedy! Ha ha!
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)This drug war is midevil. Those cartels are evil.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)But this still isn't as bad as stopping people, searching their vehicles, taking thousands in cash they find in vehicle, and then never even charging the people for any crime.
I think this needs to be illegal. You don't get to take people's money, property, vehicles, homes...nothing, unless you can prove that those properties and monies resulted from illegal behavior.
gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)Civil forfeiture is an utterly malignant evil for which there can be NO justification. It is literally highway robbery.
UCmeNdc
(9,601 posts)2naSalit
(86,920 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,524 posts)Thanks for the thread, Katashi_itto.