Colorado Pot shops likely targets of cartels

[BDKJMU]

"Colorado pot shops likely targets of cartels, say experts

"....Taking over a trade once ruled by drug cartels and turning it into an all-cash business could make pot shops prime targets for extortion, black-market competition and robbery. One veteran border narcotics agent told FoxNews.com Colorado's legal pot industry will find it hard to keep the criminals from horning in on a lucrative business they once controlled.

"Mexico is already in Colorado without the risks," the agent, who requested anonymity, said of the state's heavy pre-existing cartel presence. "Legal businesses will likely see a rise in extortion attempts while law enforcement will see a lot of backdoor deals being made."

Cartels, especially the Juarez and Sinaloa, who have a strong presence in Colorado, could not have been happy with the estimated $1 million in sales Jan. 1, the first day of legalized retail sales. In 2012 the Mexican Competitiveness Institute issued a report saying that Mexico’s cartels would lose as much as $1.425 billion if Colorado legalized marijuana. The organization also predicted that drug trafficking revenues would fall 20 to 30 percent, and the Sinaloa cartel, which would be the most affected, would lose up to 50 percent.

Faced with such losses, the violent cartels could force their way in as black market wholesalers or simply rob pot dispensaries, which take only cash and have not been able to establish accounts with banks because of lenders' fears of violating federal laws. But the general consensus is that the Mexican cartels will not quietly relinquish the Denver market........

.........."What is quite possible is that cartels will hire straw owners who have clean records who can apply for a license, then sell large quantities both legally and on the black market," Villasuso said. "We still don't know what the fall out will be but when there is this much money involved the potential is great for groups to want capitalize."

Villasuso also said that even if legal stores do face extortion efforts by cartel groups it is unlikely law enforcement will even be made aware of it if merchants are too frightened to come to police. Extortion has proven to be a lucrative ancillary enterprise for cartels in Mexico resulting in thousands of businesses closing rather than pay the quota, as it is called, or the store owners face the threat of death, which too has occurred.

One group who hopes to mitigate any risks is the Blue Line Protection Group, which specializes only in security for the marijuana stores.

Seeing a growing market, Ted Daniels started the company and uses ex-military and law enforcement to provide security for the stores' money and supply shipments, and the growing operations. The highly-trained and combat-experienced guards are heavily-armed with assault rifles and protective vests.

"This was an industry here that created a lot of challenges," Daniels told WDVR television news in Denver Jan. 7. "This group I put together is designed specifically to protect product, people, and money."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/11/co ... y-experts/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[BDKJMU]

This is an interesting issue:
Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... r-not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CAA Flagship]

This is an interesting issue:
Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... r-not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kunkel huh?
Owning 5 pot shops mere days after the law change and paying $51k in taxes out of the trunk of his BMW sounds like a Conk to me. Maybe his name should be Conkel.

[89Hen]

So the drug war is now going to be fought in the US.

[Wedgebuster]

Got to be a real low life to even consider smoking mexican pot, they lost the market for mj years ago.

[houndawg]

Got to be a real low life to even consider smoking mexican pot, they lost the market for mj years ago.

They must be selling the Mex in the ghetto.

Pretty soon everybody in Colorado will grow their own and the cartels and the guvmint will have only each other....

[CID1990]

Got to be a real low life to even consider smoking mexican pot, they lost the market for mj years ago.

They must be selling the Mex in the ghetto.

Pretty soon everybody in Colorado will grow their own and the cartels and the guvmint will have only each other....

As soon as the first taxes on the MJ start rolling in there wont be any stopping legalization everywhere. Government is even more addicted to sales tax money than they are income tax money.

Then we'll see the MJ black market looking a lot like the ciggie black market from back in the 60s.

[AZGrizFan]

This is an interesting issue:
Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... r-not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yep. It's always the bankers' fault. Fuck all ya'll.

[kalm]

This is an interesting issue:
Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... r-not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yep. It's always the bankers' fault. Fuck all ya'll.

Hey Z. Wanna open up a new kind of bank in Colorado?

[AZGrizFan]

Yep. It's always the bankers' fault. Fuck all ya'll.

Hey Z. Wanna open up a new kind of bank in Colorado?

[SDHornet]

They must be selling the Mex in the ghetto.

Pretty soon everybody in Colorado will grow their own and the cartels and the guvmint will have only each other....

As soon as the first taxes on the MJ start rolling in there wont be any stopping legalization everywhere. Government is even more addicted to sales tax money than they are income tax money.

This.

[SDHornet]

Got to be a real low life to even consider smoking mexican pot, they lost the market for mj years ago.

You mean you don't like sticks and stems with your pot?

[dbackjon]

So is this a scare tactic from the Pro-Prison Industrial Complex to keep other states from following Colorado's lead?


Illegal Marijuana only benefits the Prison and Security Industries.

[Chizzang]

So is this a scare tactic from the Pro-Prison Industrial Complex to keep other states from following Colorado's lead?


Illegal Marijuana only benefits the Prison and Security Industries.

This ^ is EXACTLY what this is...
The Local drug agents in Colorado have cameras set-up on the stores 24/7 and IN THE STORES if requested by the ownership - as they will in Washington

Smile for the camera Mr. Cartel employee
and welcome to 25 years in prison for extortion

This will NOT be a problem

[Chizzang]

So the drug war is now going to be fought in the US.

You are such a drama queen

[CID1990]

So is this a scare tactic from the Pro-Prison Industrial Complex to keep other states from following Colorado's lead?


Illegal Marijuana only benefits the Prison and Security Industries.

This ^ is EXACTLY what this is...
The Local drug agents in Colorado have cameras set-up on the stores 24/7 and IN THE STORES if requested by the ownership - as they will in Washington

Smile for the camera Mr. Cartel employee
and welcome to 25 years in prison for extortion

This will NOT be a problem

Yeah I don't see the cartel arseholes being very hard to take down on this one. Heck, this might be a good way to get them out of Mexico and into the pokey.

[houndawg]

They must be selling the Mex in the ghetto.

Pretty soon everybody in Colorado will grow their own and the cartels and the guvmint will have only each other....

As soon as the first taxes on the MJ start rolling in there wont be any stopping legalization everywhere. Government is even more addicted to sales tax money than they are income tax money.

Then we'll see the MJ black market looking a lot like the ciggie black market from back in the 60s.

To a lesser extent, I think. Its so simple to grow good weed that half the homes in the nation will have a couple of plants going at all times. Right now the legal weed in CO is $100/oz. more than the black market.

[BDKJMU]

They must be selling the Mex in the ghetto.

Pretty soon everybody in Colorado will grow their own and the cartels and the guvmint will have only each other....

As soon as the first taxes on the MJ start rolling in there wont be any stopping legalization everywhere. Government is even more addicted to sales tax money than they are income tax money.

Then we'll see the MJ black market looking a lot like the ciggie black market from back in the 60s.

True, but its excise tax $$, which are far greater than the sales taxes. Its just they are hidden. When you buy a pack of cigarettes most of what you pay is the state & fed built in excise taxes (course varies a good bit by state), sales taxes, & the $240 billion/20 year settlement $$ from the late 90s. Also high state & fed excise on other tobacco products.

When you buy a bottle of liquor a significant portion is state & federal excise taxes and sales taxes (course varies a good bit by state). Not quite as much so with beer.

God forbid if the country became a nation of non tobacco using teetotalers. The state & fed govts would lose out on tens of billions a year.

Think excise taxes should all be charged at point of sale. Then the people could really see how much the govt is stealing from them. But the $$ grubbing pols will never let that happen...

[Skjellyfetti]

This is an interesting issue:
Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... r-not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But, they say YES to the cartels.

In February 2008, Mexican authorities told the CEO of HSBC's Mexico unit that a local drug lord referred to the bank as the "place to launder money," U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday, as they announced a record $1.92 billion settlement with the British bank.

Lax money laundering controls at HSBC allowed two cartels - one each in Mexico and Colombia - to move $881 million in drug proceeds through the bank over the second half of the last decade, according to prosecutors and federal court documents.

So rampant was the practice, prosecutors said, that on some days drug traffickers deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars at HSBC Mexico accounts. To speed things along, the criminals even designed "specially shaped boxes" that fit the size of teller windows at HSBC branches, according to the documents.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100303180" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.

They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.

The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.

This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-2 ... -deal.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Grizalltheway]

This is an interesting issue:
Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... r-not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But, they say YES to the cartels.

In February 2008, Mexican authorities told the CEO of HSBC's Mexico unit that a local drug lord referred to the bank as the "place to launder money," U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday, as they announced a record $1.92 billion settlement with the British bank.

Lax money laundering controls at HSBC allowed two cartels - one each in Mexico and Colombia - to move $881 million in drug proceeds through the bank over the second half of the last decade, according to prosecutors and federal court documents.

So rampant was the practice, prosecutors said, that on some days drug traffickers deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars at HSBC Mexico accounts. To speed things along, the criminals even designed "specially shaped boxes" that fit the size of teller windows at HSBC branches, according to the documents.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100303180" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.

They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.

The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.

This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-2 ... -deal.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lol. And they say lawyers have no souls.

[kalm]

But, they say YES to the cartels.



http://www.cnbc.com/id/100303180" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-2 ... -deal.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lol. And they say lawyers have no souls.

No shit...or bankers...

I'd forgotten about this. Thanks Skelly!

[Chizzang]

This ^ is EXACTLY what this is...
The Local drug agents in Colorado have cameras set-up on the stores 24/7 and IN THE STORES if requested by the ownership - as they will in Washington

Smile for the camera Mr. Cartel employee
and welcome to 25 years in prison for extortion

This will NOT be a problem

Yeah I don't see the cartel arseholes being very hard to take down on this one. Heck, this might be a good way to get them out of Mexico and into the pokey.

The Medical Marijuana store in Redmond says right on the front door

"You will be photographed and filmed on the premises
Thank you and have a nice day"

[89Hen]

So the drug war is now going to be fought in the US.

You are such a drama queen

[kalm]

Seriously...the most annoying and dumb person on TV.

On Tuesday, Nancy Grace claimed that people on marijuana shoot, stab and strangle each other, and that children shouldn’t bear witness to their parents drinking soda.

Grace first asked the Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), Mason Tvert, what the MPP is and whether “you get paid by them.”

“Yes,” Tvert replied. “That’s my job, and our mission is to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system where marijuana is regulated and taxed and treated similarly to alcohol.”


“It’s the system,” he continued, “that a majority of Americans now think would be a much preferable system to the one we have.”

Sensing an opportunity, Grace responded, “in a nutshell, could you say why you think marijuana should be legalized — because, I mean, you know it’s addictive, highly addictive.”

Tvert replied that “marijuana’s addictive properties have been found to be actually pretty mild compared to alcohol and tobacco, and even caffeine.”

“So you — you are admitting it is addictive,” Grace interjected.

“Yes,” Tvert replied, “so is sex, so are video games.”

“So you’re admitting it! You’re admitting it!”


After Tvert calmed Grace down by pointing out that many recreational users are “normal people, just like you, who enjoy using marijuana for the same reason people enjoy having a drink after work,” Grace again interrupted him.

“The reason I’m against legalization is that I’ve seen too many felonies — felonies — and I don’t mean pot sales or growing pot,” she continued. “I mean people on pot that shoot each other, that stab each other, that strangle each other, that kill whole families — wipe out a whole family.”

“You sound like you’re from the 1930s,” Tvert responded.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/17/n ... -families/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jcu27]

Seriously...the most annoying and dumb person on TV.

On Tuesday, Nancy Grace claimed that people on marijuana shoot, stab and strangle each other, and that children shouldn’t bear witness to their parents drinking soda.

Grace first asked the Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), Mason Tvert, what the MPP is and whether “you get paid by them.”

“Yes,” Tvert replied. “That’s my job, and our mission is to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system where marijuana is regulated and taxed and treated similarly to alcohol.”


“It’s the system,” he continued, “that a majority of Americans now think would be a much preferable system to the one we have.”

Sensing an opportunity, Grace responded, “in a nutshell, could you say why you think marijuana should be legalized — because, I mean, you know it’s addictive, highly addictive.”

Tvert replied that “marijuana’s addictive properties have been found to be actually pretty mild compared to alcohol and tobacco, and even caffeine.”

“So you — you are admitting it is addictive,” Grace interjected.

“Yes,” Tvert replied, “so is sex, so are video games.”

“So you’re admitting it! You’re admitting it!”


After Tvert calmed Grace down by pointing out that many recreational users are “normal people, just like you, who enjoy using marijuana for the same reason people enjoy having a drink after work,” Grace again interrupted him.

“The reason I’m against legalization is that I’ve seen too many felonies — felonies — and I don’t mean pot sales or growing pot,” she continued. “I mean people on pot that shoot each other, that stab each other, that strangle each other, that kill whole families — wipe out a whole family.”

“You sound like you’re from the 1930s,” Tvert responded.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/17/n ... -families/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By far the biggest idiot on the planet. Some egrizzers are pretty close though.