*golfclap

Well done, Subby.

Marvelous!

Unavailable for comment

Instead, the tank fed water to a pair of enormous sheds where sailors found 49,640 liters (13,000 gallons) of ephedrine, a chemical used to make methamphetamine. That is enough to produce 40.2 metric tons of the drug, or about 309 million individual doses.


I don't even know what to say to that. Wow.

I swear it was for personal use.

Holy shiat, Mexico's got a navy?

"This is one of the heaviest blows to the drug traffickers in this administration..."

Speaks volumes about the government down there.

We obviously need more pseudoephedrine control in America to prevent the flow of pills southward.

vernonFL: 40.2 metric tons of the drug, or about 309 million individual doses

How many grams is that? Yeah that is a shiatload, but what are they counting as an 'individual dose'? 1/8th gram? 1/4 gram?

40.2 tonnes/309x10^6 works out to be about 1/8th gram by my reckoning.

"This is one of the heaviest blows to the drug traffickers in this administration ... as far as synthetic drugs are concerned," said Vice Admiral Jorge Humberto Maldonado, who estimated that the precursors were enough to produce methamphetamine worth $1.4 billion in street value.

How in the hell can you actually expect to fight such a lucrative industry? That's a losing proposition.

Legalize everything and cut them off at the knees overnight.

A tonne is 1000 kilograms. Hence 40,000,000 grams. That works out to about .13 grams per dose. That's a plausible dose.

The idea that the military is uninvolved in the drug trade? Not so much.

Well, it seems like an incremental achievement for the enforcement community. The existence of such a large fab indicates that its operators were confident of demand for their product. This demand seems stable. I think the Mexicans get their reagents from India. I don't think this keeps a rig like this from being replicated, nor does it demonstrate that it is unique.
With the downturn in the economy even more engineering talent will likley apply itself to the drugs side of the war. Seems to be a waste of skills, ultimately, on both sides.

ChiliBoots: vernonFL: 40.2 metric tons of the drug, or about 309 million individual doses

How many grams is that? Yeah that is a shiatload, but what are they counting as an 'individual dose'? 1/8th gram? 1/4 gram?

40.2 tonnes/309x10^6 works out to be about 1/8th gram by my reckoning.

I concur

/carry on, then!

vernonFL: Between this and the ton of coke found in the sharks, my weekend is ruined : (

It doesn't have to be. You still got hookers.

Two of the recent busts were in Michoacan. Probably the Upper Peninsula.

That's just creating more demand for the good blue stuff...

Breaking Bad fans - I hope you realize that as long as you keep it on the air, more and more bad stuff has to happen to poor Walt...

Apparently pseudophedrine, the precursor to meth, is fairly easy to synthesize.

Oxidized or chlorinated tolulene (solvent)
Ammonia
Yeast (specialized)
Corn Syrup
Beet extract

Throw in some chemistry knowledge, and you've got a 1.4bn meth lab.

Yeah, this is a losing battle.

Jeffrey.Rodriguez: "This is one of the heaviest blows to the drug traffickers in this administration ... as far as synthetic drugs are concerned," said Vice Admiral Jorge Humberto Maldonado, who estimated that the precursors were enough to produce methamphetamine worth $1.4 billion in street value.

How in the hell can you actually expect to fight such a lucrative industry? That's a losing proposition.

Legalize everything and cut them off at the knees overnight.

we cant legalize everything. but if we did legalize some lower class drugs like marijuana, it would free up lots of funding to go after the more hardcore drugs. Plus the amount of people in prison for marijuana offenses is tremendous, so we would be freeing up jail space, a massive problem in the states. Then on top of it, by eliminated Marijuana as a black market drug, we are taking away one of the biggest illegal markets in North America. So all the money that used to go to drug dealers and manufacturers would then be taxable and actually make money for our country. The logic is there.

No arrests?

Looks like the Mexican gov't was thrown a bone.

FTFA: the remote mountaintop site...Navy personnel on patrol

Why is the Navy paroling mountaintops?

Want to fix the issue? Get the gov't into the methmaking business. Alter the drug so one dose = INSTANT DEATH. Problem solved.

You start-off, my wishes
No you start-off
AND WEEEEE!
Oh my God!
There was this guy and he came over,
And he was like...
WEEEEE!
Oh my God!
Then I went up to my Mom,
And she was like...
WEEEEE!
That's so funny!
Cause I went home to my Dad,
And he was like...
WEEEEE!
Oh my God!
Then there was this guy
And he goes "hey I got a knife"
And I go...
WEEEEE!
Yo! I went up to a thug Gangsta,
And he was like "Yo, muthafarka"
WEEEEE!
Yo! I saw R2D2 on the street,
And it was like...
WEEEEE! BLEEP!
Yo! I saw this kid in a wheelchair,
And he was going over a hill really fast,
And he was like...
WEEEEE!
Yo! I was at the moive theater
And this guy he was like "I got popcorn"
And I was like... OH MY GOD!
WEEEEE!

if those guys south of the border can figure out how to make 1.4 billion off the most pathetic of Americans. why are we trying to run them off? we should give them a car company or something.

Saxaholic: ChiliBoots: vernonFL: 40.2 metric tons of the drug, or about 309 million individual doses

How many grams is that? Yeah that is a shiatload, but what are they counting as an 'individual dose'? 1/8th gram? 1/4 gram?

40.2 tonnes/309x10^6 works out to be about 1/8th gram by my reckoning.

I concur

/carry on, then!

The joys of the metric system.

Meh.

I really don't know how I even feel about this. It's our society's fault for creating the black market in the first place. But meth is a terrible, awful drug. I can't go either way on this one..

That being said, that is one truly incredible amount of ephedrine.

historycat: Unavailable for comment

damn, beat me to it...



also unavailable for comment

gorgor: You start-off, my wishes
No you start-off
AND WEEEEE!
Oh my God!
There was this guy and he came over,
And he was like...
WEEEEE!
Oh my God!
Then I went up to my Mom,
And she was like...
WEEEEE!
That's so funny!
Cause I went home to my Dad,
And he was like...
WEEEEE!
Oh my God!
Then there was this guy
And he goes "hey I got a knife"
And I go...
WEEEEE!
Yo! I went up to a thug Gangsta,
And he was like "Yo, muthafarka"
WEEEEE!
Yo! I saw R2D2 on the street,
And it was like...
WEEEEE! BLEEP!
Yo! I saw this kid in a wheelchair,
And he was going over a hill really fast,
And he was like...
WEEEEE!
Yo! I was at the moive theater
And this guy he was like "I got popcorn"
And I was like... OH MY GOD!
WEEEEE!

That's my favorite song!

Walliser: We obviously need more pseudoephedrine control in America to prevent the flow of pills southward.

Yeah, people should need to fill out two forms when trying to buy 10 Sudafed tablets, otherwise the nightmare will never end.

This was very impressive to read. I am an avid supporter of ending the drug war and getting the government involved in the production and distribution of these harder drugs.

That said, meth is just a completely different beast. I mean, what do we do about this? It has no recreational value and completely destroys the few people who do try it out. On the other hand, it is obviously easy enough to make in unimaginable quantities in Mexico and some groups of people eat it up. It's the outlier from all other drugs (even heroin) that makes me question complete legalization because even then, I fear we would never control it...

vinnydoz007: we cant legalize everything.

Why not? Are the people who want to do the 'harder' drugs somehow impaired from doing so now?

Prohibition does not work. That people understand that truth for alcohol and marijuana, but not for anything else, smacks of cognitive dissonance.

AliasUndercover: That's my favorite song!

Damb gonads and strife, story of my life....

Right now, there is a Mexican Admiral who is scared poopless for allowing this to happen... and his kick-backs are going to stop too.

psyche3600: This was very impressive to read. I am an avid supporter of ending the drug war and getting the government involved in the production and distribution of these harder drugs.

Why is the answer to a problem created by the government always "more government"? The only place it has in any of this is handling lawsuits on the part of manufacturers who cause injury to their clients above and beyond the inherent dangers of the drugs (bad batches, lead-laced ingredients, you catch my drift).

That said, meth is just a completely different beast. I mean, what do we do about this? It has no recreational value and completely destroys the few people who do try it out. On the other hand, it is obviously easy enough to make in unimaginable quantities in Mexico and some groups of people eat it up. It's the outlier from all other drugs (even heroin) that makes me question complete legalization because even then, I fear we would never control it...

We can't 'control it' now. Anyone who wants it can get it, and it's all illicit. Legalize it, and let people deal with the consequences of making their own decisions.

Synaesthesia: A tonne is 1000 kilograms. Hence 40,000,000 grams. That works out to about .13 grams per dose. That's a plausible dose.

The idea that the military is uninvolved in the drug trade? Not so much.

What a lot of people don't realize is that its mostly the local and state governments that are involved in the drug trafficking, not the federal government. The federal government, the same one that deployed the army to these trouble states, is actually fighting back. Granted, not everyone is a perfect little snowflake and there may be corruption even within these ranks, but its not as widespread a problem as it is at the state and local levels.

Jubeebee: More than 10,800 people have been killed by drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a nationwide crackdown on organized crime in late 2006.

Holy shiatcakes.

But oh noes! 3 people died in Iran lets make 15 threads about the same crap!

A Traveling Man: Holy shiat, Mexico's got a navy?

They've even got a SEAL team

tedbundee: Jubeebee: More than 10,800 people have been killed by drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a nationwide crackdown on organized crime in late 2006.

Holy shiatcakes.

But oh noes! 3 people died in Iran lets make 15 threads about the same crap!

LOL, I wonder if Tats has the coming down shakes yet?

If you filled your pool with that ephedrine and then went swimming in it would you die?

I thought Operation Reciprocity" had ended.
Escobedo is gonna be pissed.

I popped in just to say I'm really enjoying this BBC-style alliterative headline meme.

You can monkey with a gibbon, You can fiddle with a bow,
But before you snort that crystal meth, there's some things that you should know:
Meth is made from antihistamines, in basement labs it's cooked,
And possession is a felony, which means that you'll get booked.
With a snort it zips right up your nose, and eats away your brain,
It kills your sense of good and evil, and it makes you go insane.

So don't meth with meth, Beth!
Don't meth with meth, Seth!
Don't meth with meth... Gwyneth!
Don't meth with crystal meth!

Anyone else find it odd that the Mexican navy is in the mountains?

user1001: FTFA: the remote mountaintop site...Navy personnel on patrol

Why is the Navy paroling mountaintops?

It's the Mexican Navy...