$80 Million Prescription Drug Theft Ring Broken Up
Today the FBI broke up a prescription drug theft ring in Florida that swiped at least $80 million worth of medication. There were 22 people charged in this raid on the East Coast.
One of the biggest drug heists was in Connecticut in 2010. According to Fox News, “The thieves hit warehouses and stole tractor-trailers around the country, often from highway rest stops, and brought the drugs to South Florida and New Jersey in an attempt to sell them.
“The medications included antidepressants, anti-psychotics and treatments for cancer, acne, epilepsy, arthritis, autoimmune disorders and even aspirin and Flintstones children’s vitamins, authorities said. Undercover FBI agents were able to buy all the stolen drugs to prevent them from entering the marketplace, said John Gillies, chief of the Miami FBI office.”
At a time when prescription drug abuse is at an all-time high, it’s good to know at least some of the thieves are being foiled and brought to justice.
Hezbollah and Mexican Drug Cartels Push Cocaine into U.S.
It seems like the plot of a B-movie, but in fact worldwide organized crime knows no bounds. Recently, Hezbollah, the Mexican drug cartels, Colombia cocaine manufacturers and a Lebanese national have all been linked.
A man named Ayman Joumaa who is currently at large is said to have connections to all of the above listed organized crime entities and the U. S. Treasury Department has said that he has made more than $850 million in drug profits. Joumaa is said to have used a Lebanese Canadian Bank to launder money used in the drug trade. This bank has since been sold because of the investigation.
According to U. S. Attorney Neil MacBride who is prosecuting the case, “Money fuels the drug trade, and Mr. Joumaa is alleged to be at the center of it all – working with those producing the vast majority of the world’s cocaine to get their drugs safely into the hands of Mexican cartels. Organized crime networks know no borders, and neither can U.S. law enforcement.”
In the Middle East, Lebanon is known to be a financial hub and the banks are known for their secrecy similar to the Swiss banks.
All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Pounds of Drugs
For one of the Mexican drug cartels, smuggling two pounds of cocaine and two pounds of methamphetamines inside a vacuum cleaner into the U. S. sucked – literally sucked – this Christmas season. You see a Green Bay, Wisconsin woman received a Christmas present from her two kids which was a vacuum cleaner than had been reconditioned in Juarez, Mexico.
Inside the bag of the vacuum cleaner bag was two pounds each of methamphetamines and cocaine with a street value of around $280,000. The smuggler apparently was sneaky enough to hide the drugs in the vacuum cleaner that was packaged in Juarez, according Brown County Drug Task Force detective Lt. David Poteat.
The vacuum cleaner was then shipped to a retail store in Wisconsin where the household item was purchased. The woman who found the drugs is not under suspicion and the retail store where the drugged vacuum cleaner was purchased is cooperating with authorities.
It has also not been released as to whether the culprit vacuum was a Hoover, Dyson or Dirt Devil. No doubt the drug filled vacuum will need to be detoxed and rehabbed before it is put into a good home or at least a halfway house to suck again.