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DEA Has a Great Week

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 07:25:36 PM EST
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The Drug Enforcement Administration was busy this week. The Bad Guys (a blog of U.S. News & World Reports) reports the DEA seized the most cocaine and most money ever.

So, what does $205 million look like?

What does 42,845 pounds of cocaine look like?

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    DEA Has a Great Week | 14 comments (14 topical)

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    Imagine What $8.8 Billion Looks Like (5.00 / 2) (#3)
    by GhostDog on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 08:21:40 PM EST
    And yet, when Paul Bremer loses track of, what, 45 times as much cash? ... the Bush Administration doesn't even notice.

    Where could it have gone? Under the mattress?

    What are the measurements of that ... (none / 0) (#1)
    by Meteor Blades on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 07:36:12 PM EST
    ...cache of cash? I need to know if it would fit in my garage.

    In a couple days (none / 0) (#4)
    by Ben Masel on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 08:25:51 PM EST
    it'll shrink enough to fit.

    Parent
    You can (none / 0) (#2)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 07:42:42 PM EST
    buy any frikkin garage you want my friend!

    The Bright Side (none / 0) (#5)
    by retank on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 09:35:11 PM EST
    I wonder how much this represents in terms of loss of finances going to support the courts and lawyers involved in the drug war?
    Not to mention the lives that would be inadversley affected by getting caught and prosecuted for crimes related to this amount of coke(throughout society).

    Holy Blow, Batman! (none / 0) (#6)
    by Maggie Mae on Thu Mar 22, 2007 at 11:04:02 PM EST
    So, in trying to find the estimated street value, I think I'm left still looking for the answer.  

    US News says (all emphasis added is mine):

    On the street, all that dope is worth some $300 million, say DEA officials, who believe its final destination was the United States.

    But, on the DEA website, DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy is quoted as saying:

    "This record-breaking seizure denied the Mexican drug lords $300 million in drug revenue.

    Big difference between the wholesale price charged by the drug lords and the retail price charged on the street.  When I read the story in US News, it struck me it was the first time I'd ever thought they had underestimated street value.  Either that, or the price of a gram of coke has really dropped over the years, or maybe they don't sell by the gram, anymore, or maybe I'm reading too much into this.

    (No admission of guilt is intended by my queries...does that cover me?)

    Exactly (none / 0) (#7)
    by Pete Guither on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 07:22:45 AM EST
    And there you've hit upon the real story.

    The DEA likes to use street price of their seizures to claim they're hurting the drug lords, and yet, given the nature of black-market markup, the replacement cost to traffickers at the source is just pennies.

    Traffickers budget for seizures like this in the same way that WalMart expects a certain amount of shoplifting.

    DEA seized 1,286,660 kilograms of cocaine from 1986 to 2006, and yet the street price of cocaine during that time dropped dramatically, showing that seizures did nothing to actually reduce supply.

    Parent

    Pennies? (none / 0) (#10)
    by Patrick on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 01:19:46 PM EST
    No matter how you count this seizure, that's a lot of pennies.  

    Parent
    Nice score.... (none / 0) (#8)
    by kdog on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 08:15:57 AM EST
    for the DEA...they can hold their annual meeting on the French Riviera next year after this heist!

    I wonder how much cash was there when the first agents arrived...206 million perhaps?

    Street value (none / 0) (#9)
    by Patrick on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 01:18:45 PM EST
    Street value, or more properly, potential street value is figured by multiplying the amount siezed by the cost of the lowest commonly sold unit.  In most cases that's a quarter gram.  In this particular case, 42,845 pounds is equal to 19,475 Kilos...or 19,475,000 grams.  At $25 per quarter gram ($100 per gram) that's $1,947,500,000.00 dollars.  Again, that's "potential" street value.  What the DEA did in this case is figure the actual value to the original supplier.  knowing the difference is the key. Geeze I hope the math is right.  

    I get (none / 0) (#11)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 01:58:11 PM EST
    42,845lbs x 16oz/lb x 28g/oz = 19,194,560g x $100/g = $1,919,456,000.

    Regardless of the exact calculation, I think that's close to 2 billion dollars. (200 billion pennies)

    But I think PG's point is that the "drug lord's" cost/investment in the stuff is, in comparison to it's street value, pennies.

    I wonder if they owned the ship that got impounded.

    That's the figure I got (none / 0) (#13)
    by Maggie Mae on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 06:33:17 PM EST
    by the same calculation.

    I had done the calculations before I wrote my previous post, but was so startled by the difference, I decided not to include it.

    I understood how the DEA characterized the dollar value.  It was the line in the US News story that made me pause.  I just couldn't believe that they said the "street value" (just quoting them ;-)) was only $300 million, for that amount of coke, in gram amounts!  That would have meant that the price of coke had plummeted to, what, something like, $16/gram?  

    It's a trivial point in the scheme of this particular story.  My mind works in odd ways at times.  The estimated street value in these kinds of stories have always fascinated me.  When I read the totals, I think, "What calculator are you using?" because they are usually so much higher than what I get.   This time it was so low, I thought, "Good god, what would be the point?  Why would someone, who was expecting to make money, bother?"    That's why I checked the DEA press release.

    I guess the bigger issue for me is the sloppy reporting by US News.  It's kind of like they heard the dollar amount and just inserted it in a stock line of copy.  

    Parent

    otoh (none / 0) (#12)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 02:08:12 PM EST
    The DEA said the Mexican "drug lords" lost $300 mill in revenue because of the bust, I assume they are middle men?

    iow, they bought it from the Columbians for, I don't know, $50 mill? and planned on selling it to a bunch of "distributors" for $300 mill?

    Yeah (none / 0) (#14)
    by Maggie Mae on Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 06:36:25 PM EST
    Gotta get the chain of distribution and mark-ups in the right order.  LOL.  

    I can't believe I'm still talking about this!

    Parent

    DEA Has a Great Week | 14 comments (14 topical)

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