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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Narcoleaks: How can seized and destroyed cocaine exceed what is produced?

Borderland Beat

‘Obama’s lies about the international cocaine trade’
 
October 16, 2013 – In 2011, a small group of journalists and researchers from Italy, led by journalist Giovanni Augello and researcher Sandro Donati, author of studies on cocaine production and trafficking for the association Libera, monitored the global seizures of cocaine. The rest of the team consisted of Ilaria Roberta Sesana, Monica Caboi, Lorenzo Bagnoli and Christian Giorgio.
365 days, over 100 different sources. The monitoring was carried out daily, from January 1 to December 31, 2011. Information on cocaine seizures was collected from over 100 different sources. Media coverage was compared with official data issued by government agencies of countries most affected by trafficking. Throughout 2011, the team worked tirelessly, collecting data on more than 5,000 major drug operations that had led to significant cocaine seizures.
The record year of cocaine seizures. Analyzing the data, we estimated that cocaine seizures of high purity had totaled over 774 metric tons in 2011. After the record year of 2005, when 769 metric tons of cocaine were seized (according to UNODC data), seizures had kept a constantly lower level. In recent years, however, seizures started to steadily rise again: 708.782 metric tons in 2007, 727.174 in 2008, while the cocaine seized in 2009 amounted to 738.937 metric tons.
In addition to the 774 metric tons of cocaine seized in 2011, Narcoleaks also kept track of the drug sunk at sea or destroyed by narcos (about 21 metric tons); of coca leaves ready to be processed that had been discovered and destroyed by the police forces in clandestine drug laboratories in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru (equivalent to 25-30 metric tons of cocaine) and, finally, of the amount of cocaine estimated by investigators performing judicial inquiries completed during the year in various countries and referable to 2011 (over 400 metric tons).
click to enlarge
Methodology. Throughout 2011 we gathered information on cocaine seizures from news articles and official press releases. We only took into account the cocaine seizures above 10 kilograms. All dubious cases were discarded. Every single detail was checked (e.g. name, age, and origin of suspects arrested by the police forces; license plate, model, color of vehicles used in crime, etc.).
 
We catalogued information on seizures that took place on ships, submarines, at airports and in many other different ways, without ever taking into account seizures of small quantities. In numerous cases, the dispatch confirmed the high purity of the cocaine seized. On many occasions, it was even possible to distinguish the sealed packages. We also contacted several experts to ask for their opinion.
Disagreement with official data. On December 7, 2011 our team published a press release to  announce that the quantity of cocaine seized had surpassed the amount of cocaine produced. Our research showed, in fact, that data on the quantity of cocaine confiscated by police forces worldwide exceeded the U.S. and UN official estimates of cocaine production. This can only mean that cocaine production is underestimated by the international bodies. By December 31, in fact, cocaine seized during the year had exceeded 774 metric tons.
 The official reports by the U.S. State Department, instead, estimate the annual production to be about 700 metric tons. How can seized and destroyed cocaine exceed what is produced? Where is the mistake? In the press release, Narcoleaks also pointed out the existence of other inconsistencies in official data, and asked the U.S. President Barack Obama several questions, that the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) publicly answered on its website. However, we were not persuaded by these official replies, and with another press release we refuted each and every point. No response came after our reply.
Obama’s responsibility. The first press release by Narcoleaks was titled ‘Obama’s lies about the international cocaine trade’. We don’t think that President Barack Obama has direct responsibility for managing the data, but we believe that he has the responsibility to control them and to make sure that they are true.
Moreover, President Obama, as a member of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SFRC), addressed in detail, in December 2005, the issue of counter drug trafficking, working to produce the official document ‘Plan Colombia: Elements for success’. President Obama knows what we are talking about, but despite everything he has continued to sign documents that tell a truth that has already been proved false by the collected data.
The objective of Narcoleaks. Since the beginning we knew that this was going to be an extraordinary challenge. We worked without retribution to prove a point: that governments worldwide are not doing enough to tackle the criminal economy. But also that, above all, they don’t want to do enough. We did this in a somehow original way.
 Cocaine is the illegal substance that generates the highest returns for worldwide mafias. It can be easily monitored, since its production is geographically circumscribed, and it has an enviable global market. The discovery of this inconsistency in the official data had the sole objective of contributing to truth about international drug trafficking. We don’t have financial sponsors. We didn’t take any position on the possibility of legalizing drugs. Ours was only a journalistic work.
Effects of our study. During the days when we released the results of our research, there was little attention from the media, despite the interest aroused in the White House offices. Some local media have covered the topic, but the combination of drug and mathematics has originated some sort of mental disconnect. However, since we have continued to work on the issue, we have noticed that the following annual reports released by the U.S. Department of State and by UNODC have undergone some changes that have made them hard to compare with those from previous years. Data on estimated production has essentially disappeared, or is difficult to calculate relying only on data provided by the reports.
No secrets. We didn’t break any rule, nor we did leak any classified document. To conduct our research, we didn’t look for any whistleblower. We only used our head and documents that are available to anyone. Nothing else. We haven’t received any award, or pat on the back, or compliment. Most of the journalists from big media outlets who contacted us vanished after asking their editor for permission.
 Nobody wants to set foot on this minefield, although we have always left the door open to anyone who was curious. We don’t rule out the possibility that our data can be wrong or not correct. However, to this day no one has proved us the opposite of what we showed. But moving this project forward has proved to be too onerous for young journalists like us. This is why we have decided, for the time being, to suspend the activities, until when we have the necessary strength to take up this matter again. Silence is the hardest weapon to defuse.
Giovanni Augello
October 16, 2013
Rome, Italy

21 comments:

  1. Chapo is taking a hit hes losing friends all over

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  2. "Cocaine is America's cup of coffee" the demand for it will never stop.

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    1. Cocaine is boss but it will oblirate your nasal cavity!!!but yet people think of it as candy..

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  3. Could it be something as simple as the State department misjudged the amount of cocaine manufactured because they were given inaccurate data? It wouldn't be the first time that happened. Why they wouldn't have spotted this total unfeasible contradiction is my question. I don't know if it that big of a deal in that tons of cocaine are produced and not enough is confiscated no matter what glorifying statistics the US gov. is spouting any given week. Stastics are .....iffy on any subject anytime. How many have died and disappeared in the drug war in Mexico?

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  4. http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=355622

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  5. bull shit im doing fish scale right now lol its still coming in strong every month just gotta wait on dealers to get their shipment it seeing alot more hondurans selling it now too

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  6. This is why using your brain for thinking is so risky. You inevitably come to conclusions supported by facts and logic rather than bull droppings. People always make the mistake of thinking that government statistics are meant to inform the public. That may be one of the by-products, but the main reason governments compile and report statistics is to give the perception that they are doing their job. This is true no matter where on the political spectrum a government is placed.

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    1. Speaking of Italy's great journalists, Luca Rotello's book "I Am The Market" is worth the read, very informative on cocaine smuggling, & the story of a heavy weight "sistemista" who started out w/ Pablo Escobar & the lads from Cali, & whose name isn't revealed. Couple of things... crack is cocaine that somehow gets screwed up in the processing, but! Waste not, want not, it's got its own market. For a serious player to lose a couple million $ in shipment to the DEA ain't nothin' more than the cost of doing biz. The real deliveries are done in the dark in major ports world wide. In the dark doesn't mean at midnight, rather more like piggy back rides. Let's we've got serious weight to get to the UK via a cargo ship, & we've very cleaverly managed to get our coke well concealed in industrial sized spools of cable aboard a frieghter that's also carrying bitumen. Why bitumen? Because it hides cocaine better than engine grease & graphite. When, cargo ships pass under the electronic arc that every industrial port uses--the arc is like a gigantic CAT scan--cocaine's colour is yellow. With the spools secured below loads of bitumen the arc doesn't detect it, where as w/ graphite & engine grease the blow will show bright yellow. So, we've invoiced our spools as purchased by BBC UK London & the BBC will take delivery as soon as the spools clear customs. The day of, or the day before, we send somebody who reps the manufacturer shipping the spools to BBC to speak to UK Customs' officialdom. We have a tale of woe to tell. We confess we hadn't actually closed the deal w/ the BBC, but had shipped the goods anyway. Turns out BBC isn't interested in our cables, but, as luck would have it, another british company has agreed to buy them & will take delivery, if customs will let the spools into the UK, instead of sending the merchandise back to country of origin. Here's where our fake company's papers, & some $ come in ever so handy to cover paperwork costs for UK Customs' fees, ect. Bitumen shipments are on going, travel the world everyday, across the Pacific, the Atlantic & so forth. The only way "delivery in the dark" fails is if there is a snitch. DEA's yearly $160+ billion yearly budget has to get justified, somehow, so they lie! The product that they do manage to "sieze" is not only meaningless, but finds its way back to the market place...some how... Cheers!

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  7. This isn't even about chapo

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  8. This is how you can tell Sinaloa has power m10 is getting out in 40 days and m12 just got caught and he will also get the 40 days you kno why? Because the Sinaloa cartel reigns supreme in mexico I'm more than sure chapo had them turn themselves in to take heat off acknowledge it

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    1. You definitely are a NOBODY living in the USA...The 40 days are what we call in Mexico...Arriago, that's when the mexican officisls torture you to get every single bit of info out you...it doesn't mean you get out in 40 days you idiot!!! M10 , ratted out his brother, m12 , now they will both rat out their brother m11....and by the way...come to mexico...and you will see chapo doesn't run a damn town in mexico, not even Culiacan....

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    2. 7:37 you will RAT your mother if the right people,using the right technics interrogate you...even if you did nothing wrong,not that these mofos are innocent,the pro lem is sicarios on BIG TRUCKS,armed to the teeth with heavy weapons roam so freely all over Mexico without the police seeing "anythin"! $$$$$$??

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  9. @October 17, 2013 at 10:07 AM

    Hi, Chivo.

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  10. Ask no questions. Tell no lies. What is seized may not be put to the flame as most law enforcement may have you think. I heard that Amado Carrillo's shipments would get seized but a certain General would see to it that they would burn wood instead of the coke.

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  11. Does anyone want to point out the tangential links between this lowball estimate, the drugs and money flowing into Chicago, corrupt Chicago politics, and the upcoming immigration reform?

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  12. Production data based on CHEMICALS THE US EXPORTS to process the drug,is it taking into account the chemicals other countries export to Colombia to process the missing product,?and then when they cut and cut the product,the pushers are selling 20 times the cocaine produced...you know?Charlie Brown said to Lucy "eat your statistics",once again I see why,nazi tea all over.Obama may be parroting the wrong facts or wrong amounts,that doesn't exactly mean he is "lying"...teabaggers,unite! Find the missing stash and deposit it in a Cayman islands bank!!!

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  13. u all little punks that arent mexicans u all probably born in the states n live in the usa nothing like living in mexico and learning english and really know whats going on from first hand source los m's y gn y todos los otros grupos ke tienen en las areas (las clikas) an rulado y mantenido plazas asi ke callense el osico, k todo sale uno y tienen tratos entre los gringos asi ke no les asen nada y si algo salen mas encabronados asi ke callense

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  14. Ah, the Acetone trail.. down to Colombia, on to Mexico, back across the border into Texas, on to Kansas City to Chicago to Dearborn, Michigan, across NAFTA's great, big suspension bridge, to Windsor, Canada, to Toronto, to Montreal, or, Vancouver, BC's Pacific port. Industrial Coatings & Inks manufacturers are legit companies that use acetone by the tons, shipped by the barrel across the planet. Look around you, there isn't a single thing you see-furniture, appliances, clothing, ect.--that doesn't have an industrial ink coating. Same holds true w/ adhesives, tags & lables. Nice gig, importing acetone legally, then using it as catalyst for manufacturing meth or crappy blow. Cocaine is what it is- damaging. Ruins lives, destroys families, buys generals, presidents, governments & banks. It, also, nukes trust. That said, the war on drugs is responsible for far greater harm to people's lives than coke up somebody's nose, in a vien, or orifice of their choice. The money cocaine produces is more than any other commercial product does, keeping it illegal only serves to drive up the price. Legalize Drugs! Take away the money power from it.

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  15. L E G A L I Z E I T ! ! ! ! !

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  16. These wops forgot to remember that seized drugs will always weigh more than any projected end manufacture weight, one easy reason is that, police always weigh the packaging as well as what is in it, it gives the illusion of being more grandiose than it really is..

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  17. Lol, so cocaine will destroy your mucous membrane and is " thought" sarcastically as candy, riddle me this, doesnt sugar rot something else? Hmm what could it be? Ahh teeth so candy rots teeth if you chew too much of it, so the term would apply, nose candy i guess it could also be called brain candy

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