Here’s a surprise: It turns out that ending the drug trade by blowing up individual boats that might be carrying cocaine is about as effective as eliminating malaria by swatting the mosquitoes that land on you. Trump claims the flow of drugs is down 97%. The DEA says they’re not down at all.
After over 60 strikes, more than 200 people are dead with no trial, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has confirmed that the flow of cocaine into the U.S. has not been impeded. Instead of stopping shipments, traffickers have just changed their strategies, taking larger vessels or even planes to circumvent international waters, the DEA found.
While DEA officials noted that prices rose after the first two months of strikes, smugglers “adapted to the intensified pressure,” and neither supply nor price had “been noticeably affected.”
I doubt Trump cares, because it was obvious from the get-go that the goal here was intimidation, not interdiction. If they were really trying to stop the flow of illicit drugs, they would track those boats and their shipments to break up the smuggling operation. Instead they keep blowing up a bunch of low-level mules, showing once again that the cruelty is the point.
As the Rev. Horton Heat’s tale illustrates, drug smugglers will use any means available to move their cargo. A lot of the psychobilly standard-bearer’s revved-up songs are about sex and drugs.
“The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat” – the moniker is both the band’s name and the stage alias of Texan Jim Heath – appeared in 1993 on their second LP, “The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat.”
