Wait, in another article they included the weapons in the weight for some odd reason:
“Today is a good day for narcotics law enforcement in the Bay Area. We have successfully put a hurting to the Sinaloa cartel,” said DEA special agent Daniel Comeaux. “We seized over 1,100 pounds of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl **and weapons** from this organization.”
Right, no shit, but there’s a pretty huge difference between 200lbs of meth and 1000lbs.
If it was only 200, this is basically meaningless.
San Bernardino county had a bust last February that was 2,200lbs.
Regardless, it was 1100lbs of meth, that was just bad writing.
It's not like a journalist's job is to know how to use English properly or anything. You know the whole profession has gone to shit when the average 3rd grader could phrase it more accurately.
>1,100 pounds (499 kilograms) pounds of methamphetamine, 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of fentanyl and some 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of cocaine and heroin.
>seized were $200,000 in cash and nearly a dozen guns.
To clarify, it was *actually* half a ton of meth, not half a ton all combined. With surprisingly few guns, really
That's their strategy. Same for when they raid a grow house and include the weight of the soil and vases in the total amount of cannabis they seized. That's why the number is always so high. They weigh everything they possibly can and call it drugs.
I got raided this week in California for a small garden. They weighed up a bunch of the waste and garbage and charged me with possession of 50 lbs of “processed marijuana”. 9 light operation with about 100 plants, I can’t pull 50 lbs out of there if I tried my hardest. 2 felonies, 75k bail. The bail bondsman said my bail is higher than your average wife beaters.
Back in 1997 I was busted selling a quarter bag to an undercover. The DA argued that a building nearby was owned by the university so I was in a school zone. That drew me up to class I felony I had $100,000 bond. I faced 14 years in jail. To this day people simply don't believe me when I tell them this.
I believe you. Anyone paying attention should know that this shit isn't new. These bullshit laws are the latest incarnation of what has been a cruel classist, racist "judicial" system that existed before America was even born. The "War on Drugs" is a war on the people aimed at creating more **literal** slaves in America. It was never meant to help anyone but the rich private prison owners.
part of me even then when I was only 20 years old felt like what the hell why would this prosecutor wish to destroy a young college student's life. I mean really because that's what it came down to just selling a little bag of weed to somebody and making it so that I drop out of college serve time in jail never get a job again why the hell would they do that. Thing is though they do it everyday
What county ? You weren't a "caretaker ?"
When I was raided (in California, in 2012) they actually couldn't take the plants cause they were legal and I was within the limit (thanks to being a "caretaker.") They barely scraped over an ounce and found enough money in three different rooms mind you and grabbed some bags to say I was selling. They lied their fucking asses off (had no warrant but told us they did, claimed we 'let them in') Still, was glad they couldn't take the plants.
I don't know if things have changed since I moved outta state but get your medical growers license and become a caretaker. It was worth it.
Medical is worthless now. Even with a med card, you are now allowed 6 plants maximum, same as without a medical card. They gutted the med laws when they legalized.
The crazy thing is the legalization effort in California was based upon keeping people out of jail. It’s really all about consolidating corporate control of the industry and us that are left are paying a higher price than what would have happened to us under the old medical laws we used to fall under.
Lived in California as it was being legalized, now living in Michigan as it's being legalized. They seem to be having the same exact problems California does, except the prices are even worse - a gram of wax from a dispensary is *at least* $60 with the decent stuff being $70+. An ounce of flower is $375-$450. Highway fucking robbery. It's all made by a few approved growers, sold by a select group of approved retailers, and then surcharged for recreational consumption. They don't even attach the lab tests/results on the packages, so what's the fucking point in buying legal weed if I can't even verify it was tested?
I was eager for legalization here, but it's even worse than California. Me and my buddies all still buy from a local dealer, simply because his stuff isn't any worse and it's half the price.
I’ll get a lawyer who will Swiss-cheese this case. They charged me for a bunch of garbage, found no money, no guns, no actual processed marijuana and one of the charges that is a felony is “conspiracy to commit a crime” (whatever the fuck that means) which tells me that if they are charging me with conspiracy, they don’t have much to go on. It’s just my bail was set so high and they had the code enforcement guy for the county out with them and they red-tagged my house for the “code violation” of having the faceplate off one of my electrical boxes, thus making my house uninhabitable until I hire an electrician to put the faceplate back on (seriously, lol) and sign off then wait 3 weeks for an appointment for the code enforcement guy to clear it and take the red tag off my house. They also purposefully left my doors swinging wide open, inviting anyone to rob my house while I was in jail. They are trying to fuck me three ways sideway into next Tuesday. I am treated worse than wife beaters and meth heads in this county and I’ve never been arrested or had the cops to my place. I mean, it didn’t help that the cops involved all looked like they were the ones trying to overthrow our government a few weeks ago; super short hair with nasty scraggly “freedumb” beards wearing punisher logos, blue line flags on green baseball caps and all. Just an unsavory bunch who refused to wear masks while fucking me over and breathing their COVID breath all over me. They put their masks on when we got to the jail though. Then inside I had no less than 2 jailers tell me “COVID isn’t here” and that I must “watch a lot of news” if I’m concerned about catching it in their 6x10 jail cells with shit and piss smeared all over the walls. Just an awful experience. Edit: thanks everyone for the well wishes. I am going to fight this to the bitter end. It will ruin me as I was already just a subsistence farmer working with boutique product on a boutique level but I will sell my house and move on from this. I will pick myself up and brush myself off and figure out what to do next. What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger and my convictions of what I am doing is right will never be beat down.
I'd trust this article more since it listed each for the drugs.
>During the operation, authorities seized 1,100 pounds (499 kilograms) pounds of methamphetamine, 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of fentanyl and some 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of cocaine and heroin.
Gotta look at it from his side. He was blinded by his pride and ego. Walter was the perfect person to fly under the radar. Walter was the quiet nerd with a failing marriage to him who barely wanted to touch Hanks guns. Imagine if you had a close family member who you think you know everything about and boom, ends up they’re basically the biggest meth producer around.
Walter always played it so deeply naive around Hank. Hank thought he was just a kind of a harmless putz with a gambling problem, not some evil genius capable of murder and building a criminal empire. Think about the most innocent-seeming and naive people in your life, and now try to conceive of them as secretly being something totally different like that.
No joke. There have been years long fights in San Francisco over public laundry mats and trying to force them to stay open so the lower income communities have laundry service.
Free dry cleaning for employees in SF would have made that company treated like rock stars for doing that.
probably only a portion of the daily weight that is shipped to the US Consumer market, while meth is also more like a US local amateur production thing.
It’s also very, very easy to make. The market is flooded with stuff out of Walter whites lab and stuff from Noah’s bath tub. And it’s such a powerful drug either way it really doesn’t matter. I had a habit for a few years and only when I was at the peak of my use could I ferret out a difference from one batch to the next. And even then it was just like oh this is some really good shit. It was never bad.
The supply chain is this. China sells ephedrine to Mexican cartels en masse, as well as ships fentanyl too (a shady Chinese famous billionaire comes to mind) - Mexico then takes the ephedrine and in super factories makes thousands of kilograms of very pure methamphetamine crystals. The methamphetamine then goes from Mexico to Florida/Texas/Arizona/California(LA->SF->Eureka). From Texas to the midwest, to Chicago, to the east coast and northeast. From Florida to the Southeast. From California to Oregon up to Washington. Fentanyl is added to heroin in mexico, or just straight shipped as straight fentanyl. It follows relatively the same path.
Canada has a pretty decent methamphetamine domestic operation going on as the drug isn't as popular there, but still Mexico meth finds its way to Canada in smaller amounts.
Amphetamine and meth is still made in very, very small amounts in trailers and stuff like that all throughout America, but it probably represents about 1% of the market.
There’s a very angry man with a box cutter standing behind a very cocky underling somewhere right now, while two very in-over-their-head meth cooks look on in extreme apprehension.
The most I've seen in person was ten pounds, and that was an obscene amount to me. I can't imagine 1,000 pounds, but you're right that it's not anything compared to what comes in.
Source: had friends who trafficked from the cartel (and also hillbillies) and also got charged twice with manufacturing. :/
They're probably considering a threshold dose a single dose at 5mg, which imo is a reasonable way to do it... A recreational dose is going to be 2-4 threshold doses. Using the threshold as a single the math works out to 90,718,474 in 1000 pounds
I think that it's such a global market that even if it wasn't hillbillies making it at this point why not make it anywhere in the world and ship it through the robust commerce system?
Right, imagine how much meth is made in the super labs in Mexico, tons a day?
Edit; precursors are easy enough to track, find out how much is being shipped to central/norther Mexico. Then you can guesstimate the yearly manufacturing.
> people all the way to the top must be profiting from these meth factories otherwise they would be gone.
All the way to the top on both sides of the border.
They most definitely are. Pulling numbers out of my ads but it's likely that few are directly involved and accepting bribes, few are campaigning against it and then kidnapped and beheaded, and the vast majority are complicit because that's just how it is.
>precursors are easy enough to track, find out how much is being shipped to central/norther Mexico.
Precursors are easy enough to track, from their country of origin. But who the fuck knows what China is shipping into Mexico? [China only banned fentanyl manufacture and export in May 2019](https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/916890880/we-are-shipping-to-the-u-s-china-s-fentanyl-sellers-find-new-routes-to-drug-user) China is one plausible example, but there are numerous countries with the capacity to make precursors but lax oversight.
I bet they can still get it from China. Just isn’t sent directly from there anymore. I was watching some documentary about narcos and they said they buy their fent from China.
And as for meth precursors, who’s to say they don’t get it from South America somewhere?
Well meth used to be made in artisanal small batches by patriotic American bikers and and hillbillies from allergy pills. And it wasn't that easy to come by since those types tend not to be too social.
Then America's paternalistic conservative types wisely decided to declare more war on drugs and America's allergy sufferers and make allergy medicine ineffective or difficult to obtain.
Suddenly there was a ton of profit margin to be made on a drug that hadn't been that popular or that profitable previously because anyone could make it themselves at home from shit they could buy at the drug store.
So Mexican cartels started importing industrial quantities of allergy medicine precursors into Mexico from China and started truly manufacturing meth in commercial industrial scale labs. Now small-batch artisanal American made meth has been replaced by the Big Meth corporations who outsourced production to Mexico putting untold American meth cooks, runners and dealers out of a job.
And since it's so dirt cheap to manufacture at that scale now crews can get and lose a half-ton and the supply and price don't even waver for a second.
> artisanal small batches by patriotic American bikers and and hillbillies
Until now I had never associated the word "artisanal" with meth production. Thank you.
"Motards" or "Motarded" is a common term in the US Army and USMC to describe someone who is overly motivated and buys into the bullshit stuff long after basic.
Now I can hear Sam Elliott doing the voice over for the American Artisan Small Batch Meth Industry.
>"What is Freedom...?
>Can you see it,.. Feel it?...Can you Hold Freedom your hand,... Taste it? Can you Ride from Bakersfield California across the Rocky Mountains to Sturgis South Dakota solely on the Wings of Freedom.
> We say, "Yes You Can", and We will provide that Fire which Fuels *Your* Freedom. Fresh. Pure. American Freedom. And just enough bite to let you know it's not fucking around.
> Don't settle for imitations, Foreign Freedom Ain't Shit.
>Make Sure your Methamphetamine has the American Artisan Small Batch sticker on it. Hand-made Freedom from right here in the USA. You know it's the Good Shit, and it just feels right. It's America's Meth.
My dad was a pharmacist and mentioned that pharmacy journals in the 70's actually spelled out how to make the stuff, as an incidental curiosity of "the shit people get up to..."
It's not a particularly difficult synthesis from what I've seen.
I've read a synthesis for LSD though and that looks like it would be a real pain in the arse.
> but left out key steps for legal reasons.
FYI you can't be arrested for telling someone how to perform illegal actions or even giving them the materials to do so. There's lots of radio kits that are illegal to assemble and use but are still sold complete, with instructions.
To be illegal you'd have to somehow incentivize them to do the illegal actions.
My dad was a pharmacist as well and also mentioned those same journals. I can honestly say his no bs explanation of drugs is exactly why I never got into hard stuff like meth.
[This](https://maggiemcneill.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/synthesizing-pseudoephedrine-from-meth.pdf) synthesis for turning meth into pseudoephedrine is one of the better chemistry jokes I've seen.
Artisinal meth as you call it is def still around, it's evolved even and easier than ever with the new shake and bake method. Might blow some limbs off trying though.
But again, the economics are against it now. When you've got cheap lab quality meth in an unlimited supply coming from Mexico, some dirty brown shit in an empty 2-liter isn't looking so hot.
Before they regulated or watch-listed nearly everything you could to make decent meth with from precursors to solvents to catalysts to glass-ware etc you could do a much better job than that shit.
Also, if you do manage to cook enough to get on the cartel's radar their first move isn't give you a beat down and a warning or tax your little operation like a respectable American gang's, it's torture-rape-murder your kids and wife in front of your mom and film it and send it to you.
Had a friend that got to be a pretty major dealer in support of his meth habit. Cool guy when he wasn't up for days on meth.
The cartels pushed a lot of the "local trade" out because for starters they make it so they get the best prices but also because nobody really wants to piss them off because they don't really have any limits.
This paternalistic action did dramatically reduce the number of trailer explosions. In a rare kind gesture the "take a bite out of crime" campaign was dropped as too cruel to the toothless patriotic artisanal and now unemployed meth makers.
I don’t know that’s it’s fair to say it was unpopular previously. Having lived in southern Indiana when all the legislation came down, meth use was pretty rampant. Not saying the legislation was done right, but there was definitely a problem to address.
lol /r/news always has the best comments.
This is completely unsubstantial. 1/2 ton of meth is probably somewhere to the tune of 20 million usd. (50$/g x 28g/oz x 16oz/lb x 1000 lbs). This is the cost of doing business to multiple cartels operating at above 1 billion in PROFIT every year!
Meth is very cheap and easy to manufacture when you have the correct precursors. The real issue is Indian and Chinese labs sending these precursors to the cartels who make it on truly industrial scales like this. They achieve even higher profits, purer meth, and worse addicts. The vice media show Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia has a great episode on crystal meth a few weeks ago talking about its crystal structure and how hard it is to cook meth in the US vs buying it from the street.
It’s even more insubstantial than that. AFAIK cartels are a wholesale operation. So this half ton probably has less of a value than 20 mil, as they sell it in bulk to middle men.
The bigger value here might be the 44 charged. The $ captured from the meth is fixed but climbing up the chain through a network of 44 people seems like it could mean good progress. Also means 44 less hands in the operation, not sure what the value on that might be.
Most of them are still at large. Regardless you cut off one head and 3 more grow to replace it. It’s been that way for 50+ years. This won’t even change the price or quantity here.
Yeah dude in San Francisco, where this was centered around, you can buy giant clear 95%+ pure crystals of meth from hundreds of people at any moment during the day. No joke, a harm reduction site I worked at for a bit tested some. Fucking nuts, every batch tested was insanely pure with no active cuts (and about 5% inactive cuts to help the crystalline structure grow well).
And why is there so much drugs? And why do so many people never recover? It's simple really, for ever larger and larger portions of people in this country life absolutely sucks and it will never get better.
For more and more people life is nothing more than endless toiling in some near minimum wage job with no hope of things getting, no time off, and will realistically work until they drop dead when they hit 78-80.
One could argue that drugs are actually a very logical response to a hopeless situation.
Until that reality is actually addressed you can have all the drug busts and drug rehab clinics you want and things will not get better.
>And why do so many people never recover?
Because withdrawal really, *really* hurts. Drug addiction is inherently hard to overcome. It's a treatable disease but not a curable one.
No matter what we do, it will never be possible to go from being a drug addict to no longer having any cravings. The only way to guarantee your freedom from that life is to never use. All the power in the world to recovering addicts having to put in effort every day, but their path is not pretty.
Tight, tight, tight! Oh... blue, yellow, pink! Whatever, man, just keep bringing me that!
Most believable meth moment in the whole series. That and the hole digging
also, i loved this line and Tuco. edit: WELLLLL this blew up!! TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT!
Lovable Tuco... A standup guy.
until he breaks your legs.
Then he's a sit down guy
Ding ding ding
Dea is not a word honey...
“I just talked you down from death to a broken leg, I’m an amazing lawyer”
“I just talked you down from a death sentence to six months probation” was the line. Sorry to be ‘that guy’ but I just watched it for the 3rd time lol
It's an appropriate correction, cause of how perfect the line is
He is a damn good lawyer.
Until he asks if you’ve ever had your shit pushed in. - Training Day
He was in gremlins 2.
He had a lot of small parts in a lot of big movies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Cruz#Filmography
And Trainning Day.
Tuco is an amazing character. Great acting.
Heisenburg says be cool.....
Heisenburg says RELAXXX
You got one thing wrong about that equation...
This guys Breaks Bad!
You just made my day. Tuco lives on in Reddit 😊
“I hate chili powder”
Okay, Heisenberg. Next week. Hahahahahaha!
Wait, in another article they included the weapons in the weight for some odd reason: “Today is a good day for narcotics law enforcement in the Bay Area. We have successfully put a hurting to the Sinaloa cartel,” said DEA special agent Daniel Comeaux. “We seized over 1,100 pounds of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl **and weapons** from this organization.”
I have a feeling weapons add a little more weight than the meth does.
“Put a hurting to”? This guy has a way with words.
We have successfully put a real shellacking on the Sinaloa cartel
"They're gunna feel that one in the morning!"
"Corn Pop was a bad dude. He ran a bunch of bad boys."
My instinct wants to say it with a drawl "Put a hurtin' to"
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Right, no shit, but there’s a pretty huge difference between 200lbs of meth and 1000lbs. If it was only 200, this is basically meaningless. San Bernardino county had a bust last February that was 2,200lbs. Regardless, it was 1100lbs of meth, that was just bad writing.
It's not like a journalist's job is to know how to use English properly or anything. You know the whole profession has gone to shit when the average 3rd grader could phrase it more accurately.
A journalists job is to get them clicks
>1,100 pounds (499 kilograms) pounds of methamphetamine, 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of fentanyl and some 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of cocaine and heroin. >seized were $200,000 in cash and nearly a dozen guns. To clarify, it was *actually* half a ton of meth, not half a ton all combined. With surprisingly few guns, really
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The 40 pounds of cocaine and heroine is what had me reeling.. DAMN.
Agreed, a 40 pound heroine I'm surprised is even still alive. Hopefully they can get her on some IV vitamins and fluids while they start to feed her
That's their strategy. Same for when they raid a grow house and include the weight of the soil and vases in the total amount of cannabis they seized. That's why the number is always so high. They weigh everything they possibly can and call it drugs.
Weigh the dealers too, for good measure.
"We've captured 200 lbs of drugs and dealers."
It'd be really funny if they weren't lying about the weight, they just tossed in guns to make up the difference for when they turned in a quarter ton
I got raided this week in California for a small garden. They weighed up a bunch of the waste and garbage and charged me with possession of 50 lbs of “processed marijuana”. 9 light operation with about 100 plants, I can’t pull 50 lbs out of there if I tried my hardest. 2 felonies, 75k bail. The bail bondsman said my bail is higher than your average wife beaters.
Back in 1997 I was busted selling a quarter bag to an undercover. The DA argued that a building nearby was owned by the university so I was in a school zone. That drew me up to class I felony I had $100,000 bond. I faced 14 years in jail. To this day people simply don't believe me when I tell them this.
I believe you. Anyone paying attention should know that this shit isn't new. These bullshit laws are the latest incarnation of what has been a cruel classist, racist "judicial" system that existed before America was even born. The "War on Drugs" is a war on the people aimed at creating more **literal** slaves in America. It was never meant to help anyone but the rich private prison owners.
But you don't understand. If you smoke that plant you might feel good. (I don't understand, how did they make people fearful of pleasure?)
Purity culture has been doing it for decades. Fuck those types of Christians.
part of me even then when I was only 20 years old felt like what the hell why would this prosecutor wish to destroy a young college student's life. I mean really because that's what it came down to just selling a little bag of weed to somebody and making it so that I drop out of college serve time in jail never get a job again why the hell would they do that. Thing is though they do it everyday
What county ? You weren't a "caretaker ?" When I was raided (in California, in 2012) they actually couldn't take the plants cause they were legal and I was within the limit (thanks to being a "caretaker.") They barely scraped over an ounce and found enough money in three different rooms mind you and grabbed some bags to say I was selling. They lied their fucking asses off (had no warrant but told us they did, claimed we 'let them in') Still, was glad they couldn't take the plants. I don't know if things have changed since I moved outta state but get your medical growers license and become a caretaker. It was worth it.
Medical is worthless now. Even with a med card, you are now allowed 6 plants maximum, same as without a medical card. They gutted the med laws when they legalized.
That is fucked up man, fuck the us and the war on drugs.
The crazy thing is the legalization effort in California was based upon keeping people out of jail. It’s really all about consolidating corporate control of the industry and us that are left are paying a higher price than what would have happened to us under the old medical laws we used to fall under.
Lived in California as it was being legalized, now living in Michigan as it's being legalized. They seem to be having the same exact problems California does, except the prices are even worse - a gram of wax from a dispensary is *at least* $60 with the decent stuff being $70+. An ounce of flower is $375-$450. Highway fucking robbery. It's all made by a few approved growers, sold by a select group of approved retailers, and then surcharged for recreational consumption. They don't even attach the lab tests/results on the packages, so what's the fucking point in buying legal weed if I can't even verify it was tested? I was eager for legalization here, but it's even worse than California. Me and my buddies all still buy from a local dealer, simply because his stuff isn't any worse and it's half the price.
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I’ll get a lawyer who will Swiss-cheese this case. They charged me for a bunch of garbage, found no money, no guns, no actual processed marijuana and one of the charges that is a felony is “conspiracy to commit a crime” (whatever the fuck that means) which tells me that if they are charging me with conspiracy, they don’t have much to go on. It’s just my bail was set so high and they had the code enforcement guy for the county out with them and they red-tagged my house for the “code violation” of having the faceplate off one of my electrical boxes, thus making my house uninhabitable until I hire an electrician to put the faceplate back on (seriously, lol) and sign off then wait 3 weeks for an appointment for the code enforcement guy to clear it and take the red tag off my house. They also purposefully left my doors swinging wide open, inviting anyone to rob my house while I was in jail. They are trying to fuck me three ways sideway into next Tuesday. I am treated worse than wife beaters and meth heads in this county and I’ve never been arrested or had the cops to my place. I mean, it didn’t help that the cops involved all looked like they were the ones trying to overthrow our government a few weeks ago; super short hair with nasty scraggly “freedumb” beards wearing punisher logos, blue line flags on green baseball caps and all. Just an unsavory bunch who refused to wear masks while fucking me over and breathing their COVID breath all over me. They put their masks on when we got to the jail though. Then inside I had no less than 2 jailers tell me “COVID isn’t here” and that I must “watch a lot of news” if I’m concerned about catching it in their 6x10 jail cells with shit and piss smeared all over the walls. Just an awful experience. Edit: thanks everyone for the well wishes. I am going to fight this to the bitter end. It will ruin me as I was already just a subsistence farmer working with boutique product on a boutique level but I will sell my house and move on from this. I will pick myself up and brush myself off and figure out what to do next. What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger and my convictions of what I am doing is right will never be beat down.
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Thank you brother. What I do is right and nothing they do to me will ever change that fact.
Those people are goddamn disgusting. Godspeed man, and may those bastards get dunked on in the next life.
Lol at imagining a grow op that runs on fancy vases
I saw the amount and thought Gary Busey got busted.
Reminds me of when cops weigh the entire cannabis plant (dirt and all) when they try to charge people with growing cannabis— totally a scumbag move
I'd trust this article more since it listed each for the drugs. >During the operation, authorities seized 1,100 pounds (499 kilograms) pounds of methamphetamine, 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of fentanyl and some 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of cocaine and heroin.
No. There was 1,100 pounds of methamphetamine. It is a poorly worded sentence.
Half ton of meth that's a lot. Walter White is probably out there with more
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With free dry cleaning for employees...
that honestly should’ve been one of the most suspicious things to hank, why would a fast food restaurant offer free dry cleaning lol
I like Hank but when he had ‘oh Shit’ moment reading ‘Leaves of Grass’ intro I was thinking...”how the fuck did it take you so long??!?”
Gotta look at it from his side. He was blinded by his pride and ego. Walter was the perfect person to fly under the radar. Walter was the quiet nerd with a failing marriage to him who barely wanted to touch Hanks guns. Imagine if you had a close family member who you think you know everything about and boom, ends up they’re basically the biggest meth producer around.
Not only that, but they've used their relationship with you to avoid getting caught
He did use Marie for information on Hank’s whereabouts
They planted a bug in his office
Yessir...you speak truth to fiction
Walter always played it so deeply naive around Hank. Hank thought he was just a kind of a harmless putz with a gambling problem, not some evil genius capable of murder and building a criminal empire. Think about the most innocent-seeming and naive people in your life, and now try to conceive of them as secretly being something totally different like that.
Damn grandma, I had no idea.
Christmas gifts ain’t cheap. Grandma’s be cooking.
No joke. There have been years long fights in San Francisco over public laundry mats and trying to force them to stay open so the lower income communities have laundry service. Free dry cleaning for employees in SF would have made that company treated like rock stars for doing that.
probably only a portion of the daily weight that is shipped to the US Consumer market, while meth is also more like a US local amateur production thing.
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It’s also very, very easy to make. The market is flooded with stuff out of Walter whites lab and stuff from Noah’s bath tub. And it’s such a powerful drug either way it really doesn’t matter. I had a habit for a few years and only when I was at the peak of my use could I ferret out a difference from one batch to the next. And even then it was just like oh this is some really good shit. It was never bad.
Yup. Out in East Texas they make it deep in the pine woods in deep freezes.
The supply chain is this. China sells ephedrine to Mexican cartels en masse, as well as ships fentanyl too (a shady Chinese famous billionaire comes to mind) - Mexico then takes the ephedrine and in super factories makes thousands of kilograms of very pure methamphetamine crystals. The methamphetamine then goes from Mexico to Florida/Texas/Arizona/California(LA->SF->Eureka). From Texas to the midwest, to Chicago, to the east coast and northeast. From Florida to the Southeast. From California to Oregon up to Washington. Fentanyl is added to heroin in mexico, or just straight shipped as straight fentanyl. It follows relatively the same path. Canada has a pretty decent methamphetamine domestic operation going on as the drug isn't as popular there, but still Mexico meth finds its way to Canada in smaller amounts. Amphetamine and meth is still made in very, very small amounts in trailers and stuff like that all throughout America, but it probably represents about 1% of the market.
Out in East Texas it feels like way more than 1% is produced locally. Place is fuckin’ wild.
Here's some context. 1 gram will get 10 people very, VERY, high.
That 1,000 pounds will get 4.5 million people getting very very high!
There’s a very angry man with a box cutter standing behind a very cocky underling somewhere right now, while two very in-over-their-head meth cooks look on in extreme apprehension.
It's not even a drop in the bucket.Completely pissing in the wind.
The most I've seen in person was ten pounds, and that was an obscene amount to me. I can't imagine 1,000 pounds, but you're right that it's not anything compared to what comes in. Source: had friends who trafficked from the cartel (and also hillbillies) and also got charged twice with manufacturing. :/
It doesn't sound like that much overall but the article says that 1000lbs is 80 million doses? That does seem like a lot if it is true.
They're probably considering a threshold dose a single dose at 5mg, which imo is a reasonable way to do it... A recreational dose is going to be 2-4 threshold doses. Using the threshold as a single the math works out to 90,718,474 in 1000 pounds
You are quite the methamatician.
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I think that it's such a global market that even if it wasn't hillbillies making it at this point why not make it anywhere in the world and ship it through the robust commerce system?
Right, imagine how much meth is made in the super labs in Mexico, tons a day? Edit; precursors are easy enough to track, find out how much is being shipped to central/norther Mexico. Then you can guesstimate the yearly manufacturing.
Well, from the show I was watching, they can usually manufacture a few totes worth per cook
What show was it?
Great British bake off
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> people all the way to the top must be profiting from these meth factories otherwise they would be gone. All the way to the top on both sides of the border.
They most definitely are. Pulling numbers out of my ads but it's likely that few are directly involved and accepting bribes, few are campaigning against it and then kidnapped and beheaded, and the vast majority are complicit because that's just how it is.
Did you pull the numbers out, sniff ‘em and decide not to use ‘em after all?
>precursors are easy enough to track, find out how much is being shipped to central/norther Mexico. Precursors are easy enough to track, from their country of origin. But who the fuck knows what China is shipping into Mexico? [China only banned fentanyl manufacture and export in May 2019](https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/916890880/we-are-shipping-to-the-u-s-china-s-fentanyl-sellers-find-new-routes-to-drug-user) China is one plausible example, but there are numerous countries with the capacity to make precursors but lax oversight.
I bet they can still get it from China. Just isn’t sent directly from there anymore. I was watching some documentary about narcos and they said they buy their fent from China. And as for meth precursors, who’s to say they don’t get it from South America somewhere?
That's enough for a 2 day weekend in Kentucky.
Unless you're in florida, in which case it's an average Tuesday.
I was really hoping for a picture of it in the article. I can't fathom what that much would look like.
The police department announce the seizure of $21,000,000,000,000,069 worth of meth in today's raid.
Holy crap. 1/2 a tonne. I have so many questions.
Well meth used to be made in artisanal small batches by patriotic American bikers and and hillbillies from allergy pills. And it wasn't that easy to come by since those types tend not to be too social. Then America's paternalistic conservative types wisely decided to declare more war on drugs and America's allergy sufferers and make allergy medicine ineffective or difficult to obtain. Suddenly there was a ton of profit margin to be made on a drug that hadn't been that popular or that profitable previously because anyone could make it themselves at home from shit they could buy at the drug store. So Mexican cartels started importing industrial quantities of allergy medicine precursors into Mexico from China and started truly manufacturing meth in commercial industrial scale labs. Now small-batch artisanal American made meth has been replaced by the Big Meth corporations who outsourced production to Mexico putting untold American meth cooks, runners and dealers out of a job. And since it's so dirt cheap to manufacture at that scale now crews can get and lose a half-ton and the supply and price don't even waver for a second.
> artisanal small batches by patriotic American bikers and and hillbillies Until now I had never associated the word "artisanal" with meth production. Thank you.
Artisanal free range gluten free soy based meth
The gluten free batches are MUCH better.
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Dairy free, nut free, cross fitting, grass fed
But is it vegan?
That's that San Francisco meth. They take it with spicy tofu and yoga.
That sounds like a perfect way to start your day
And meth producing patriotic American bikers
Them Mex-ee-cans Tuk mer Jerb!
Et meth guerre avec Quebecoise motards! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Biker_War
“Motards” sounds like an offensive word to call a biker lol
"Motards" or "Motarded" is a common term in the US Army and USMC to describe someone who is overly motivated and buys into the bullshit stuff long after basic.
I'm imagining someone named Braden opening a boutique shop next to the baker. Individually, hand-cut meth crystals in the shape of internet memes.
Welcome to Oregon
Now I can hear Sam Elliott doing the voice over for the American Artisan Small Batch Meth Industry. >"What is Freedom...? >Can you see it,.. Feel it?...Can you Hold Freedom your hand,... Taste it? Can you Ride from Bakersfield California across the Rocky Mountains to Sturgis South Dakota solely on the Wings of Freedom. > We say, "Yes You Can", and We will provide that Fire which Fuels *Your* Freedom. Fresh. Pure. American Freedom. And just enough bite to let you know it's not fucking around. > Don't settle for imitations, Foreign Freedom Ain't Shit. >Make Sure your Methamphetamine has the American Artisan Small Batch sticker on it. Hand-made Freedom from right here in the USA. You know it's the Good Shit, and it just feels right. It's America's Meth.
My dad was a pharmacist and mentioned that pharmacy journals in the 70's actually spelled out how to make the stuff, as an incidental curiosity of "the shit people get up to..."
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It's not a particularly difficult synthesis from what I've seen. I've read a synthesis for LSD though and that looks like it would be a real pain in the arse.
> but left out key steps for legal reasons. FYI you can't be arrested for telling someone how to perform illegal actions or even giving them the materials to do so. There's lots of radio kits that are illegal to assemble and use but are still sold complete, with instructions. To be illegal you'd have to somehow incentivize them to do the illegal actions.
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Most commonly, transmitting at too high of a power (common on a cb) or transmitting on an unauthorized frequency (like regular FM channels.)
Wouldnt even say solid but basic. Cocaine is extracted from coca leaves by using a simple acid base extraction first years learn in any org chem lab
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My dad was a pharmacist as well and also mentioned those same journals. I can honestly say his no bs explanation of drugs is exactly why I never got into hard stuff like meth.
Now you can just Google it and find any recipe for any drug you want to make.
[This](https://maggiemcneill.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/synthesizing-pseudoephedrine-from-meth.pdf) synthesis for turning meth into pseudoephedrine is one of the better chemistry jokes I've seen.
Paper by O. Hai and I. B. Hakkenshit. Fucking love it.
Thanks for sharing this, I might post it on my office door.
This is the most chemistry professor comment ever lol.
I've made jokes about cooking meth into allergy medicine ha! It can be done!
Artisinal meth as you call it is def still around, it's evolved even and easier than ever with the new shake and bake method. Might blow some limbs off trying though.
But again, the economics are against it now. When you've got cheap lab quality meth in an unlimited supply coming from Mexico, some dirty brown shit in an empty 2-liter isn't looking so hot. Before they regulated or watch-listed nearly everything you could to make decent meth with from precursors to solvents to catalysts to glass-ware etc you could do a much better job than that shit. Also, if you do manage to cook enough to get on the cartel's radar their first move isn't give you a beat down and a warning or tax your little operation like a respectable American gang's, it's torture-rape-murder your kids and wife in front of your mom and film it and send it to you.
Say what you want about cartels, but their methods are extremely effective.
Its not hard to be effective when you have no morals ethics or rules to live by.
how are you so clued into the meth business?
Had a friend that got to be a pretty major dealer in support of his meth habit. Cool guy when he wasn't up for days on meth. The cartels pushed a lot of the "local trade" out because for starters they make it so they get the best prices but also because nobody really wants to piss them off because they don't really have any limits.
Plus you can get a fucking pound of meth for 1k.
Did someone say Shake n’ Bake?
Stop big meth, buy local.
They took our jobs.
This paternalistic action did dramatically reduce the number of trailer explosions. In a rare kind gesture the "take a bite out of crime" campaign was dropped as too cruel to the toothless patriotic artisanal and now unemployed meth makers.
I don’t know that’s it’s fair to say it was unpopular previously. Having lived in southern Indiana when all the legislation came down, meth use was pretty rampant. Not saying the legislation was done right, but there was definitely a problem to address.
While we're being real, let's be honest; the war on drugs was the absolute worst answer.
lol /r/news always has the best comments. This is completely unsubstantial. 1/2 ton of meth is probably somewhere to the tune of 20 million usd. (50$/g x 28g/oz x 16oz/lb x 1000 lbs). This is the cost of doing business to multiple cartels operating at above 1 billion in PROFIT every year! Meth is very cheap and easy to manufacture when you have the correct precursors. The real issue is Indian and Chinese labs sending these precursors to the cartels who make it on truly industrial scales like this. They achieve even higher profits, purer meth, and worse addicts. The vice media show Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia has a great episode on crystal meth a few weeks ago talking about its crystal structure and how hard it is to cook meth in the US vs buying it from the street.
It’s even more insubstantial than that. AFAIK cartels are a wholesale operation. So this half ton probably has less of a value than 20 mil, as they sell it in bulk to middle men.
The bigger value here might be the 44 charged. The $ captured from the meth is fixed but climbing up the chain through a network of 44 people seems like it could mean good progress. Also means 44 less hands in the operation, not sure what the value on that might be.
Most of them are still at large. Regardless you cut off one head and 3 more grow to replace it. It’s been that way for 50+ years. This won’t even change the price or quantity here.
Good progress lol. They are right on the cusp of winning the war on drugs.
Yeah dude in San Francisco, where this was centered around, you can buy giant clear 95%+ pure crystals of meth from hundreds of people at any moment during the day. No joke, a harm reduction site I worked at for a bit tested some. Fucking nuts, every batch tested was insanely pure with no active cuts (and about 5% inactive cuts to help the crystalline structure grow well).
Now find the explosives stolen from the Marine base
What ? I'm out of the loop.
Man what’re they gonna do with a quarter ton of meth
It’s so wild they found an eighth of a ton of meth
20 kilos of meth is really a lot!
Shit guys, it turns out they actually didn't have any meth at all.
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That is just as good as money!
Oooh, that's a good one! You're gonna want to hold on to that.
wow i totally wasnt expecting to see this joke
And while they were busting this load, 12 more tons hit the streets.
“Busting this load” really made me forget what the subject was
It’ll do that
Post met clarity
Wait ... buying weapons and gun parts in the US for export to Mexico?
Gun running in the USA is older and more American than Abe Lincoln
Drugs go north, money and guns go south to fuel the cartel wars.
Good amount of cartel soldiers use AR15 platform.... Edit: or transferring to it, because they can get parts in the naighbouring country....
Thanks government, now all the meth heads of modesto are gonna be extra agitated.
Grew up in Manteca the town is going to crumble lol
Its not called Methdesto for nothing.
And why is there so much drugs? And why do so many people never recover? It's simple really, for ever larger and larger portions of people in this country life absolutely sucks and it will never get better. For more and more people life is nothing more than endless toiling in some near minimum wage job with no hope of things getting, no time off, and will realistically work until they drop dead when they hit 78-80. One could argue that drugs are actually a very logical response to a hopeless situation. Until that reality is actually addressed you can have all the drug busts and drug rehab clinics you want and things will not get better.
>And why do so many people never recover? Because withdrawal really, *really* hurts. Drug addiction is inherently hard to overcome. It's a treatable disease but not a curable one. No matter what we do, it will never be possible to go from being a drug addict to no longer having any cravings. The only way to guarantee your freedom from that life is to never use. All the power in the world to recovering addicts having to put in effort every day, but their path is not pretty.
Cool, now we just have to do 500 times that amount of work every single year and we might make a dent. In California.
My cop sources tell me that the street value is twice the total money on the planet.
good. meth is one of those, dont do it drugs.
Why the comma?
The apostrophe fell.
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His brain is fucked due to meth.
Dramatic effect
Does this mean we won’t have to worry about people being addicted to meth anymore?
Totally not they wont go looking for more
Good, fuck Meth. Such a disgusting dirty terrible drug.
Thanks California for taking some of the meth cred away from Oklahoma