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Corrupt Government Title: Florida Cops Laundered Millions For Drug Cartels, Failed To Make A Single Arrest
police-corruption BAL HARBOUR, Fla. — Posing as money launderers, police in Bal Harbour and Glades County, Fla. laundered a staggering $71.5 million for drug cartels in an undercover sting operation, according to an in-depth investigation by The Miami Herald. With fake identities, undercover officers made deals to pick up cash from criminal organizations in cities across the country. Agents then delivered the money to Miami-Dade storefronts and even wired cash to banks overseas in China and Panama. After laundering the cash, police would skim a three percent commission fee, ultimately generating $2.4 million for themselves. “If you think of all the money that’s made from drugs, at some point it has to be cleaned up and become legit,” remarked Finn Selander, a former DEA agent and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. But unless proper precautions are taken, sting operations can “backfire” and “come back and bite you in the proverbial ass.” Together, the Bal Harbour Police Department and the Glades County Sheriff’s Office formed the Tri-County Task Force, which, despite the name, consisted of only two agencies. From 2010 to 2012, the task force passed on information and tips to federal agencies that led to the government seizing almost $30 million. Yet the undercover unit laundered over $70 million for drug cartels—more than twice as much as what was actually taken off the streets. bal-harbour-fla In this, Tuesday, May 19, 2015 photo, the village of Bal Harbour, Fla., and its beach are shown. The city of Miami is seen in at rear. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) Notably, the Tri-County Task Force never made a single arrest. The task force countered that assertion, claiming they passed on intelligence that led to over 200 arrests made by other agencies. But a representative from the DEA said, “There’s no way we can validate those numbers. We have no idea what they are basing those numbers on.” Tellingly, “the task force did not document the names of the 200 people who were arrested,” according to The Miami Herald. Thanks to the commissions from money laundering, the task force could indulge in a lavish lifestyle. Officers enjoyed $1,000 dinners at restaurants in the Miami area, and spent $116,000 on airfare and first-class flights and nearly $60,000 for hotel accommodations, including stays at the Bellagio and the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and El San Juan Resort & Casino in Puerto Rico. Police also spent over $100,000 on iPads, computers, laptops and other electronics, bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee for $42,012 and even purchased $25,000 worth of weaponry, including FN P90 submachine guns. (Bal Harbour, a seaside village of 2,500 residents known for having the nation’s top sales-generating mall, reported just one violent crime in 2012.) Initially, to gain seed capital to conduct the sting operations, Bal Harbour tapped into equitable sharing, a federal asset forfeiture program. Under equitable sharing, cash, cars and real estate can all be forfeited to the government if there is an alleged nexus between criminal activity and the property involved, though criminal convictions or indictments are not necessary. As Michael Sallah, the investigative reporter at the Herald who broke the story, noted, “The Tri-County Task Force’s entire sting operation could not have existed without the DOJ’s Equitable Sharing program.” In fact, Duane Pottorff, the chief of law enforcement at the Glades County Sheriff’s Office, was remarkably candid about his agency’s motivations in joining the task force: “We thought this was a chance to bring in more revenue.” “Forfeiture money allowed us to have resources that normally we wouldn’t have,” including “patrol cars, vests, guns for the deputies, ammunition, all this, the training room, the training equipment is all paid with forfeiture funds,” he added.
Written by Nick Sibilla for Forbes Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Thanks to the commissions from money laundering, the task force could indulge in a lavish lifestyle. Officers enjoyed $1,000 dinners at restaurants in the Miami area, and spent $116,000 on airfare and first-class flights and nearly $60,000 for hotel accommodations, including stays at the Bellagio and the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and El San Juan Resort & Casino in Puerto Rico. Police also spent over $100,000 on iPads, computers, laptops and other electronics, bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee for $42,012 and even purchased $25,000 worth of weaponry, including FN P90 submachine guns. (Bal Harbour, a seaside village of 2,500 residents known for having the nation’s top sales-generating mall, reported just one violent crime in 2012.) I've said all along that this money doesn't pay salaries or ongoing expenses. These PDs treat it like a mad money fund for off-budget spending and to live high off the hog without having to account for it. I can almost guarantee there was a lot more direct corruption going on as these frauds got more and more in bed with the cartels. Every member of this "taskforce" should be fired and should never be allowed to work in any official capacity again.
#2. To: TooConservative (#1) Every member of this "taskforce" should be fired and should never be allowed to work in any official capacity again. No. These are the inevitable temptations that come from what is legal but unprincipled. Rather, we simply have to take the draconian and effective step of cutting off the program of civil forfeitures without conviction. End it. End the distribution of such money to police departments. The police cannot resist such temptation. People cannot resist it. And even though they COULD resist it, they WON'T. So, what you have to do is prevent the abuse by simply cutting off the practice. This is why drugs have to be legalized. We have so completely corrupted our government with drug money, just as we did with alcohol money, that we've lost control of officialdom and lost our way. This can never, ever be fixed by a perpetual "punish them harder" regime, for THAT will, in turn, be applied to destroy little people and badly connected lesser officials, but to let the powerful and connected ones become that much MORE powerful (by eliminating the competition). Instead, you have to accept that human liberty means that a lot of people are going to be able to do things you hate, and it's none of your business. Focus on limiting the externalized damage. And cut off the temptation to corrupt government. That is the way. That men fall and become corrupt is a universal. Everybody falls for something. Everybody who is an adult is corrupted in some way. It's called sin. Nobody is without it. There are a bare fistful of sins we need to criminalize. The rest we need to leave punishment to God and Nature. Nobody ever really gets away with anything, in the end. But we don't have to inflict corrupt government on ourselves playing Canute, trying to order back the tide.
#3. To: Deckard (#0) ...ultimately generating $2.4 million for themselves.... Hey, the operation sounds like it was totally
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