DEA now laundering drug money

Make it stop

Combating drug traffic requires the ability to track money.

That is a given. After all, even Al Capone could only be brought down by following the money. 

We now have several news outlets reporting that the DEA has decided to be in the business of laundering the money for Mexican drug cartels.  Apparently, it is a new program and involves significant sums of money. The  NY Times sums it up in one paragraph: 

One D.E.A. official said it was not unusual for American agents to pick up two or three loads of Mexican drug money each week. A second official said that as Mexican cartels extended their operations from Latin America to Africa, Europe and the Middle East, the reach of the operations had grown as well. When asked how much money had been laundered as a part of the operations, the official would only say, "A lot."

As this program involves millions of dollars, it is safe to say that the DEA is "all in" on laundering drug money.  Perhaps the program can be justified and be seen as effective in the tracking of money and possibly lead to the arrest of  the banking culprits who violate the law. Such a program requires extensive safe guards and oversight, and given the total lack of sanity in fast and Furious, there is real cause for concern.  Darrel Issa wrote a letter earlier to Eric Holder mentioning just such concerns:

"The existence of such a program again calls your leadership into question.  The managerial structure  you have implemented lacks appropriate  operational safeguards  to prevent the implementation of such dangerous schemes"

Indirectly such a program, even when done properly and professionally, comes with a severe cost. By aiding in money laundering, you are abetting in the flow of narcotics, drugs and violence.  Business Insider reports this as a significant problem with the program. 

But it is not clear whether the DEA stings are doing anything to put a dent in drug profits or significantly disrupt cartel operations. In fact, as one former agency official told the NYT, "the D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths."

First it was guns, and now it is their money.  A person could be excused for thinking that these recent revelations smell of a conspiracy to raise violence and trouble along the southern border for crass political purposes.  Just like Fast and Furious, what could possibly go wrong?  Some say this is exaggerated and is simply the product of a conspiratorial mindset.  The problem is that, as of late, the conspiracy nuts have been mostly right.

By any legal means, there needs to be a change at the very top of our government.