These people deserve bonuses and anything they seize should be evenly distributed to those who risk their lives.

[url]www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0816Missingmoney16-ON.html[/url]

$600,000 in drug money missing; FBI investigating

Associated Press
Aug. 16, 2001 07:00:00

TUCSON - An audit found that nearly $600,000 is missing from illegal drug money confiscated by a regional narcotics unit, leading to an FBI investigation.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Wednesday night that the money is linked with about 50 Metropolitan Area Narcotics Trafficking Interdiction Squad cases over three years.

He said he acknowledged the investigation out of a sense of responsibility to the public.

Most other law enforcement operations involved in MANTIS had little to say about Dupnik's statement.

"Chief Richard Miranda is aware of an investigation involving MANTIS personnel that has been turned over to the FBI," said Sgt. Judy Altieri, a Tucson police spokeswoman.

"We are referring all questions to the FBI, said Assistant Chief Kermit Miller of the Tucson police. "It's their investigation.

Lt. Ron Benson of the Sheriff's Department, deputy MANTIS commander, said that "I don't even know if there is a case. If there is, then that's something that the FBI is going to have to comment on.

FBI Special Agent Marc Dallacroce confirmed that MANTIS was being investigated but provided no further information.

Dupnik said the investigation was turned over to the federal agency after an audit was performed about six weeks ago.

He said the audit was undertaken because of a change in finance personnel within MANTIS and MANTIS board member concern that the "RICO account" seemed uncommonly low.

RICO is the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that allows seizure of assets connected to criminal acts.

The sheriff also said that he himself doesn't know the status of the investigation but that he felt law enforcement agencies had a duty to make the situation know.

"I understand that this is an ongoing investigation, but I think we have a responsibility to at least give some basic information about what's going on and what's being done about it," he said.

Maybe I should reconsider my reluctance to work for the gov.

As I said in our last discussion, maybe it's time to declare ourselves the winners in the War on Drugs and beat a hasty retreat.

Drugs, and I mean serious drugs, were widely available and easily obtainable prior to 1903, right?

I don't know about you, but my feeling is that the USA was a pretty nice place to live back in 1903.

Well, if you were white, maybe. And Christian.
And educated. And not consigned to menial labor.

You know it probably didn't hurt if you had some money, not a lot, mind you, but some.

I take it back. We were probably just as messed up back then as we are today.  Sorry.

Eric The(ButWeStillNeedToEndTheWarOnDrugs)Hun[>]:)]

Hey, this is in my backyard !!! we get these stories about once a month. Lots of cash floating around, and they dont pay cops or border patrol squat.
one thing leads to another....

There is no way to win the War on Drugs, Eric.

If you legalize many of them, drug dealers will go out of business, pharmaceutical corporations will receive more money, thus lowering domestic (beneficial) drug costs.  Once drugs are incorporated into society, there will be stiff and mandatory drug tests in the workplace.

We can win the war on drugs...if we ignore the fact that drugs are illegal.
Flame On!

[img]www.auburn.edu/~littlcb/new jew.jpg[/img]

Boy, that would really suck if the drug companies stayed rich selling recreational drugs to losers and morons, then lowered the prices of cancer drugs, etc. in an effort to improve their sleazy image. We couldn't allow that to happen; it almost smacks of justice.

Long live the War on Drugs!

Post from Jewbroni -

Precisely. That's why we should just declare it won, and get on with the business of our country! Sorta like the folks said about the US in Vietnam.

I didn't mean we could actually win the war. The US prisons are some of the most secure in the world and they are rife with drugs.  

Well in order to win the war against drugs, we would have to have a society that was just a [b]wee bit more confining that your typical max-security prison![/b]

Shouldn't be TOO hard, the public's been trained for that sort of lifestyle for, say, the last fifty years!

Eric The(See,WeWinOnlyIfWeLose,OrMaybeWeLoseOnlyIfWeWin?)Hun[>]:)]

Why would pharmaceutical companies get more money if we re-legalized drugs??  Marijuana grows easily anywhere even in the wild.

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BTW, if anyone wants to help stop a part of the madness, I'll be collecting signatures for Initiative 256, the Innocent Property Owners Protection Act, down at HempFest at Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle, tomorrow from 10am-3pm.  The initiative is to require that the state get a criminal conviction before seizing property, and that the seizure be both related to and proportional to the crime -- no more stealing an apartment building just because the landlord rented to a tenant who, without the landlord's knowledge or consent, was selling drugs out of an apartment.
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