Word: druggings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...drug lords seem to be getting the message. An authorized spokesman for one of the cartels told TIME that Escobar, Gacha and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, don of the Cali cartel, recognize Barco's inflexibility and are waiting for his term to expire next August. Says the source: "They'll try to reason with the next President." But "reason" is surely a euphemism for "control." Through intermediaries, the narcos are putting money behind candidates for President, Congress and mayors of key cities. After election day, the bill will come...
Having endured Barco's best shot so far, the drug chieftains appear to be rebuilding their scorched empire. Cocaine production, which in September dropped to a quarter of its usual level of about 50 tons, is back up to 75%. Says a Western diplomat: "They were knocked off balance, but never out of business. If they need to boost production, they offer people double or triple salary. Money means nothing to them...
When U.S. drug agents tallied up the amount of cocaine they seized during fiscal 1989, their haul totaled 89 tons, or 44% more than last year's. The volume, which is believed to be only a small percentage of the tons flooding the country, is evidence of more than just a frighteningly effective drug- smuggling industry. The wholesale value of the coke, as much as $28 billion, is testimony to another kind of dark genius. This is the scandalous ability of the coke kingpins to launder billions of dollars in drug proceeds using many of the same financial services available...
...secrecy laws of tax havens to shuffle assets with alacrity. The very institutions that could do the most to stop money laundering have the least incentive to do so. According to police and launderers, the basic fee for recycling money of dubious origin is 4%, while the rate for drug cash and other hot money...
Much is at stake as the powerful flow of narcodollars is recycled through the world's financial system. Drug lords and other lawbreakers are believed to be buying valuable chunks of the American economy, but clever Dutch sandwiches and other subterfuges make it almost impossible for U.S. authorities to track foreign investors. A case in point: blind corporations based in the Netherlands Antilles control more than one-third of all foreign-owned U.S. farmland, many of the newest office towers in downtown Los Angeles and a substantial number of independent movie companies producing films like Sylvester Stallone's Rambo pictures...