World’s Smelliest Lawn Jockeys
February 5th, 2009 by Perry
15 people have been arrested in Los Angeles in connection with concrete-donkey-shaped lawn ornaments filled with $1.5 million of weed. The LA Times reported 200 burros were discovered at the Port of Long Beach, which were hidden in a shipment from Mexico, headed to a fictitious business in Fontana.
Authorities may have been tipped off, or simply realized that no one would actually want a statue of a Mexican donkey on their lawn, unless it was 3-foot tall, hollowed out and filled with marijuana.
Most of the suspects are being held on immigration violations, although you have to give the cartels originality points. I wonder if the new “trojan burro” policy was a mandate from the top, or the work of an ambitious go-getter, like the inventor of the drug sub.
Or maybe someone throughout the term “drug mule” one too many times, and things got literal. Either way, I’d have to say it’s a step back in terms of technology, creativity and design.
[img via LA Times]
Everything You Didn’t Know About Montel
January 20th, 2009 by Perry
After a 17-year run, Montel Williams, a personality synonymous with daytime talk shows, recently went off the air.
In an interview with Inked, the former marine — who served actively during a short-lived invasion of Granada, spied and chased communists in a submarine and spent nearly two decades in the media tackling often controversial issues — talked candidly about a life that’s a lot more interesting than I would have imagined.
Q: Will it ever be legalized?
No question. Right now there are 13 states that have already passed medicinal marijuana laws that allow doctors to prescribe. In another two years we’ll be up to 19 states. When we hit 25, the federal government can’t stop it.
Williams, who was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, also talked about his work as a medical marijuana patient and activist, and why he believes in the drug’s effectiveness.
Federales Nab Colombian Smuggler/Seaman
December 16th, 2008 by Perry
Enrique Portocarrero, a Colombian shrimp fisherman, was recently arrested and now faces extradition to the United States, on smuggling and conspiracy charges.
Portocarrero was charged with building more than a dozen mini-semi-submersibles, similar to a submarine although the crafts don’t fully submerge.
The vessels are designed to carry up to 8 tons of cargo and went for a million dollars a pop. The real value lied in the ship’s ability to avoid detection; leaving a small heat signature and negligible sonar appearance. The craft could make make the money back several times over after one trip.
The shift to submarines was made over a year ago, when all licensed craft off of the Colombian and Ecuadorean coasts became required to carry GPS signals, so police could track them.
Some of the semi-sub’s specs:
- 60-feet long
- 350-horsepower diesel engines
- Four-man crew
- State-of-the-art radio, GPS and satellite telephone communications
- Range of 2,000 miles
Fiberglass, Submarines & Drugs
November 4th, 2008 by Alex
We all know the new hot fad in drug smuggling is homemade submarines, but have any of us ever seen one?
Well, here are two images fresh from the wire. A fiber glass submarine with 1.6 tons of cocaine was found and seized in southern Colombia. Good times.
One more after the jump…
[photo via AP Photo/Fernando Vergara]
DEA: 2006 – A Year in Pictures
January 3rd, 2007 by Tim
“Not for Hide & Go Seek.”
“That tickles!”
With the New Year already upon us, plenty of organizations are looking back to the year of 2006. One of those organizations (that we especially like to keep tabs on) is the DEA.
They have just released ‘The Year in Pictures 2006‘ and it gives some pretty interesting views into the many different areas of drug trafficking.
From Tickle-Me-Elmo’s to homemade submarines, the DEA encounters strange happenings on a consistent basis.
[via Crime Sift]
Cocaine Smugglers Build Shit Submarines
November 24th, 2006 by Tim
Friday, four men from Costa Rica did something that’s growing in popularity. They handcrafted a 50-foot submarine made of wood and fiberglass, including 3 plastic pipes used as breathing devices.
Submerged only six feet beneath the ocean surface, the poor-man’s submarine had a zippy speed of 7 mph. That’s actually not bad, when you consider three tons of cocaine were on-board.
Tipped off by the craft’s three pipes curiously skimming across the surface, authorities spotted the sub off the Costa Rican coast near Cabo Blanco National Park. Security Minister Fernando Brerrocal said in a statement:
This is the first time in the country’s history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts.
I bet it isn’t going to be the last.
[via Newsvine]
