The Three-Continent Joyride Known as “Team America”

November 15, 2022 2:04 PM

“You can’t win an unwinnable war. DEA knows this and the agents know this,” Irizarry said. “There’s so much dope leaving Colombia. And there’s so much money. We know we’re not making a difference.” from DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties, sex amid ‘unwinnable war’ [AP]
posted by chavenet (17 comments total)

very interesting read. here is my shocked face.
posted by supermedusa at 2:34 PM on November 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

I wonder how ex-DEA agents fare in the Pen? Can't imaging very much goodwill towards a frontline soldier in the war that put many inmates in there.
posted by OHenryPacey at 2:50 PM on November 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

If these are federal charges he could wind up doing some fairly cushy time, I think?
posted by supermedusa at 3:12 PM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you spend much time in Miami it becomes very, very hard to believe they're even trying at this point. At best they occasionally go through the motions so that it at least looks at first glance like they're doing something.

There are basically three kinds of drug law enforcement in this country: Completely corrupt cops who are muscling in on the action (most "drug task forces" are filled with people from this group), try hards who find and often manufacture penny ante possession charges to make their numbers look good like it's some kind of game, and the fuckwits who "smell weed" so they can search people illegally and seize any cash their victims may be carrying.

There are (or used to be, anyway) a decent number of cops who actually care about their community who could not give less of a shit about simple possession, but it sure seems like those folks have mostly been driven out at this point and it's like 90% corruption and 10% trying to get a high score.
posted by wierdo at 3:16 PM on November 15, 2022 [15 favorites]

“became another man”

No, you were always a bully and a thief. You just hid behind a badge to be better at it.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:14 PM on November 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'd like to congratulate drugs for winning the War on Drugs.

Now can we discuss the terms of our surrender? Whether decriminalisation, legalisation, or controlled and regulated legal markets - any option is better than what we have now.
posted by happyinmotion at 4:28 PM on November 15, 2022 [22 favorites]

We Own This City Nation
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:37 PM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

#ACAB
posted by AJScease at 6:23 PM on November 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Although I loved Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, one of the least plausible aspects of the series was that the DEA (and LE in general) is generally shown to be incorruptible. Not one roll of cash or packet up meth ends up in a cop's or agent's pocket, not one shipment of drugs entering or being moved around the country is done with the help of someone with a badge. That's rather unlikely.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:25 PM on November 15, 2022 [15 favorites]

It's like a war, but everyone's on drugs
posted by scruss at 7:12 PM on November 15, 2022 [5 favorites]

It's like certain monarchies thrive on this trade and, engaged with heavily armed capitalist armies, intend to continue. I remember some Middle Eastern players using Colombian mercenaries in, was it Yemen? Then we keep a lot of peeps in Colombia and Panama, every one is cashing in. There is the Mayan channel cut into the reef off Belize for subs full of goodies, so to speak, and reading this stuff, the agents are at terrible risk, and more like, traffic control, to keep the major players from breaking out into open warfare, thereby revealing everyone's complicity. With his dying breath McAfee was talking about the Spanish, and I believe he was actually talking to them as he took his last breaths. This game has a hairy cover charge. Going to work for the DEA has to have a horrific cost, if you live long enough to retire and everyone you have messed with lets you live, would you just build a house in a cornfield, and never come out again?

Then there is the shipping trade, cargo container ships, semis full of "produce" and porous borders, motorcycles with five gallon gas tanks, which can be in Mexico and across the various trails, and in my neighborhood, just stopplng to water cacti. I read things here, a while back someone was discussing modifying yeast to make narcotics. If they can grow meat in tanks, well they can grow most anything. Any tank, anywhere.

It boggles my mind just thinking about it, the golden triangle, giant fishing vessels, Hollywood, disco dancing all night, kids dying in school zones because the vapes had fentanyl, or some such thing. There are bad, bad, people in this world. Central nervous system stimulants F up all values, and finding a way out of that is doable but difficult, and the workday use of meth is a form of slavery, the ruins of which, search for bottles to recycle, and huddle under under the overpass near the recyclers, sleep, sprawled on sidewalks, the whole maze connects to some plants in the hills of Columbia, the valleys of Afghanistan, the labs everywhere, the plants everywhere, the interface between legal drug makers and their back door operations, so yeah, the DEA guys are some guys, what has the US been thinking that this even works?
posted by Oyéah at 8:27 PM on November 15, 2022 [7 favorites]

It's like a war, but everyone's on drugs

You don't want a War On Drugs, you want a War On Drugs.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:14 PM on November 15, 2022 [7 favorites]

Metafilter: just build a house in a cornfield, and never come out again
posted by riverlife at 10:21 PM on November 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

Alfred McCoy's The Politics of Heroin is a fascinating read on the international drug trade since WWII. its CIA, not DEA, but really the same bat channel if not the same bat time.
posted by supermedusa at 8:50 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

I assumed it was a coincidence, but after reading, this may actually be a reference to Team America: World Police, the 2004 puppet movie by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, given the likely ages and media tastes of the players involved. It is a completely puerile and absolutely filthy movie satirizing American imperialism.
posted by bq at 9:20 AM on November 16, 2022

It's not just the DEA and other bad faith actors in America's drug war. When you've got bad laws that are poorly, erratically, and corruptly enforced, it's corrosive to the administration of justice as a whole. How many other laws are broken because people have learned that the law is not worthy of respect directly from the police and the courts? How many crimes are committed because people have learned they have to resolve disputes themselves, because they can't rely on the law to protect them?
posted by LegallyBread at 10:16 AM on November 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

Although I loved Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, one of the least plausible aspects of the series was that the DEA (and LE in general) is generally shown to be incorruptible.

Considering that I've watched both series multiple times (minus s6 of BCS), I feel like a complete idiot for never picking up on this.

although only 99% accurate since a critical early subplot of BCS involves corrupt cops and murder, but yes, the DEA are basically saints in both series, and most cops are, at worst, "just doing their jobs" without knowing the big picture (that only the audience truly has access to).
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:53 AM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]