Illicit drugs as an asset to the state

[rednblacklumberjack]

I've been trying to wrap my brain around why you'd look at the drug trade as globalized cashcows. In doing so, I'm leaving the assumptions and predictions of the "drug war," and trying to revisit the drug trade in purely mercenary terms: how much $ does it make you? What obstacles lie between you and the top of the pile?

I'm hoping skyhook, demon and others more worldly and better read than I can help fill in the some gaps here, because there is often at least a rumor of the US colluding with drug lords in the course of its war-making, and I'm wondering if these cashcows are as essential to our war-machine as aircraft and satellites and ceaseless training?

What I've imagined is that when you're looking at a foreign country, and presuming there's alot of covert, subversive activities you'd like to accomplish, you need to find a way to finance it. And what is better to finance illicit deeds than cash? And what better source for cash than the local economy? And is there a part of the economy as accessible and as readily-coerced as the thin-margins and thin-skins of drug traffickers? You only need to negotiate with money and power. I know the status quo creates tons of misery, but this does sound like a pretty clever solution - at least to my utterly green mind.

Or at least that's how I imagine it works. Is it a useful exercise that, right after you inquire where the carriers are, you ask, "where are my crack troops that can wrest drug network 4523452 from State X's control?" or "Where are my drug lords?" Are we good at taking over drug networks? Do we opt to send SEALs after Tony Soprano when "our" guy is ready to take those soon-to-be-available reigns? Or do we contract locally for that sort of thing?

I had initially wondered if state control of drug networks are an attempt to weaken politically-disfavored groups. But this seems to paranoid and parochial. But what do I know?

[Tinker]

Here is a topic on the subject:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=876&p=21899&hilit=drug*#p21899

[Tinker]

Drug trades can provide off the books illicit capital for covert operations. Criminals in networks can provide sources of intel on other shady operations. They can also be used to smuggle weapons, intelligence or anything that needs to be smuggled across borders.

Just think of the China Triangle: Tea, Opium and Silver.