On Thursday, 17 members of an alleged drug ring were arrested in both Puerto Rico (11 arrests) and Colombia (six). They were accused of money laundering and smuggling cocaine to the United States from Venezuela. Just last month, a Puerto Rican grand jury issued a 23-count indictment against the 29 members of the alleged group. The other nine members are wanted and officials are continuing to search for them. Meanwhile, the captured individuals are being extradited to Puerto Rico. The perpetrators were using speedboats to ship drugs and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash from Venezuela to an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. They laundered the goods to Colombia through different businesses and banks. They were estimated to have smuggled about eight tons of cocaine from 2010 to 2012.
This article was written by a representative from Yahoo! News on January 29. 2015 at 4:57 PM. While I found this piece interesting, it didn't come as a surprise to me. I was already aware that drug smuggling from Latin American through the Caribbean has boomed in
recent years after the United States stepped up patrols of its Mexican
border following drug-related violence. Still, it is a reminder that the drug industry is more powerful than we think and the United States is a hotspot. I hope that as time goes by and technology advances, officials will come up with a solution to change drug smuggling worldwide.
http://news.yahoo.com/u-colombia-arrest-17-accused-shipping-cocaine-venezuela-215742489.html
Yes, I agree. It is disturbing how prevalent the drug smuggling industry has become and especially, how present it is becoming in the United States.
ReplyDelete- Vivie Behrens (period 6)
Drug trafficking is quite similar to the gangsters from the 20s. They dealt in the creation and selling of illegal substances.
ReplyDelete