Thursday, January 31, 2008

Paid By the Load

I mentioned the other day that corrupt cops and border enforcers frequently get paid by the load on the US side for allowing drugs to pass through their jurisdiction, and from El Paso comes another example ("Fugitive border patrol agent back in El Paso," EP Times, Jan. 31) that gives us an idea of the going rate:

Arturo Arzate Jr., 49, a Border Patrol agent for 20 years, is accused of waving loads of drugs through the checkpoint on Highway 62/180 east of El Paso, federal court documents state. He was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and bribery.

He was arrested Aug. 16, 2007, by Mexican officials in Torreon in the state of Coahuila and extradited to the United States Wednesday. He had been a fugitive since February, officials said.

The Border Patrol agent was "allegedly paid $50 per kilo of marijuana and $1,000 per kilo of cocaine he allowed to pass through the checkpoint between El Paso and Carlsbad."

Imagine how high the markup must be on cocaine when you can pay a single cop $1,000 per kilo and still make a profit!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not like the cop is going to weigh the shipment. They tell him it's 5 kilos of cocaine and pay him $5,000. He's happy. They're happy, too, because he is a goof-proof magic pass through border security, and he won't know it's 50 kilos that went through.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

I bet they get pretty good at eyeing it when their supplemental paycheck is involved.

Anonymous said...

I bet the supplemental earnings are not reported to the IRS. It's sad there are cops that would actually do this.

Anonymous said...

A kilo is a whole lot of cocaine, easily worth way more than $1000. People buy it by the gram.

Anonymous said...

Basic math gives you 1000 grams in a kilo and street price for an eight ball(3.5 grams)is around $240. If I cut the kilo at 50% I will get the equivalent of 570 eight balls which gives me about $136,800 on an investment of approximately$40,000. therefore a bribe of 1,000 per kilo is nothing but a small dent in the profit. If you sell all by the gram you are looking at around $160,000 It is a proftable business with no tax or regulation at all.