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90 Pounds Of Cocaine Found On Cargo Ship Owned By Anti-Drug Senator’s Family

poledriver

poledriver

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90 Pounds Of Cocaine Found On Cargo Ship Owned By Anti-Drug Senator’s Family

mconnell-cocaine.png


A cargo ship connected to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell was recently stopped and searched before departing from Colombia. During the search, Colombian Coast Guard agents seized roughly 90 pounds of cocaine.

The drugs were found on the Ping May, which is a vessel operated by the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a company owned by Mitch McConnell’s in-laws, the Chao family. This connection is not only relevant because of the family connection, but also because the Chao family has often made large donations to McConnell’s campaigns.

In fact, the Chao family has been funding McConnell since the late 1980s. Years later, in 1993, McConnell married Elaine Chao and secured the Chao family as one of his primary sources for investments.

A gift worth somewhere between 5 and 25 million dollars from the Chao Family made McConnel one of the richest senators in the country in 2008.

The Foremost Maritime Corporation is currently operating 16 dry bulk cargo ships, most of which are currently still in service.

What makes this case even more interesting is that McConnell is well known as a staunch prohibitionist. In 1996, McConnell sponsored “The Enhanced Marijuana Penalties Act”, a bill designed to increase the mandatory minimum sentencing for people caught with marijuana.

Luis Gonzales, an official with the Colombian Coast Guard in Santa Marta told The Nation that the Ping May’s crew were questioned as part of the investigation, but that they have yet to file any charges in the case.

The war on drugs is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. There are mountains of evidence proving that the biggest importers of harmful, addictive, mind diminishing street drugs is the government. The drug laws that exist do not apply to the government agencies that bring these substances to our country. They are only designed to keep everyone else from this extremely lucrative business and give the establishment another reason to oppress people.


Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/90...nti-drug-senators-family/#KyFP5gYVvGxbrZXj.99
 
Yeah this is just coincidence I'm sure...just BC he owns the company doesn't mean he knows what is in every shipping container. Prob the captain of the ship or someone on the I side looking to make some big money fast.
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
Yeah this is just coincidence I'm sure...just BC he owns the company doesn't mean he knows what is in every shipping container. Prob the captain of the ship or someone on the I side looking to make some big money fast.
Click to expand...
He doesn't own it or control it, its a his (in-laws) family
 
harmacologist said:
He doesn't own it or control it, its a his (in-laws) family
Click to expand...

Fed X did not own or control the companies it delivered packages for.. it just took their money. But it is charged with money laundering. Why is this not money laundering as well?
 
poledriver said:
This connection is not only relevant because of the family connection, but also because the Chao family has often made large donations

A gift worth somewhere between 5 and 25 million dollars from the Chao Family made McConnel one of the richest senators in the country in 2008.
Click to expand...

Coincidence I'm sure.
 
this story is bullshit. i hate the man and wish only bad things on him, but 90 pounds of cocaine is not much to hide on a cargo ship and any number of people could be responsible, from the dude cleaning the toilets to the captain to the CEO of the company.
 
This reminds me of culty gurus who preach that sex is bad, because they want all the nubile, doe-eyed young female followers to themselves.
 
neversickanymore said:
Fed X did not own or control the companies it delivered packages for.. it just took their money. But it is charged with money laundering. Why is this not money laundering as well?
Click to expand...

The main difference would be that Fed X was warned numerous times by the Federal Government that certain companies were using their services to deliver illicit packages and asked them to stop, as far as I can tell from the article the family that owned this ship were not warned that a specific client was using their services to smuggle drugs. There is a very big difference between the two situations in my opinion...
 
drug_mentor said:
The main difference would be that Fed X was warned numerous times by the Federal Government that certain companies were using their services to deliver illicit packages and asked them to stop, as far as I can tell from the article the family that owned this ship were not warned that a specific client was using their services to smuggle drugs. There is a very big difference between the two situations in my opinion...
Click to expand...

My understanding of the Fed X situation was that they were given no way of distinguishing packages coming from those companies from the hundreds of thousands of packages they have in motion at any one time.
 
I pray for the day old pond scum men like him die out. Even his picture looks slimy and weazely
 
Crankinit said:
My understanding of the Fed X situation was that they were given no way of distinguishing packages coming from those companies from the hundreds of thousands of packages they have in motion at any one time.
Click to expand...

My understanding is quite different, I actually only have knowledge of the case based on the handful of articles that were posted in DitM on the subject a while ago, I have not seen it it in the news otherwise.

This article claims that,
Beginning in 2004, FedEx was warned "on no less than six different occasions" that illegal Internet pharmacies were using its services to distribute prescription drugs, the indictment said. Those warnings extended to senior management at the company, the filing said.

In one instance, FedEx knew the Drug Enforcement Administration shut down one pharmacy, but continued to ship packages from its affiliates.
Click to expand...

If that is true then there was at least one occasion where FedEx may not have had outright knowledge that packages from certain sources contained drugs but at the least they had good reason to suspect that was the case. I fucking hate the US Government and the Drug War, but in this instance it seems to me like they gave FedEx the benefit of the doubt and FedEx decided to continue business as usual.

This article says,
As early as the mid-2000s, the indictment reveals, employees in multiple states had allegedly expressed concerns to management about the dangers of delivering addictive pills. According to the investigation, deliverymen and women reported being “stopped on the road by Internet pharmacy customers demanding packages of pills” and “[being] threatened if they insisted on delivering a package to the address instead of giving the package to the customer who demanded it.” Others claimed that customers were “doctor shopping” and expressed concern that some of them had “overdosed and died.”

Instead of targeting the companies, FedEx re-structured the delivery plan, according to investigators. A senior vice president of security reportedly launched an initiative that allowed delivery people to leave packages from “problematic shippers” at a station where the consumer could pick them up.
Click to expand...

If that is true it is pretty damning evidence against FedEx, the same article has a former employee on the record saying it was common knowledge among staff and management they delivered heaps of drugs. He also claims on one occasion he expressed strong and very justified concerns a particular client was using their service to distribute drugs (this person was eventually prosecuted successfully for distributing drugs) and he was told to continue delivering the packages for said client.
 
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poledriver said:
90 Pounds Of Cocaine Found On Cargo Ship Owned By Anti-Drug Senator’s Family

mconnell-cocaine.png


A cargo ship connected to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell was recently stopped and searched before departing from Colombia. During the search, Colombian Coast Guard agents seized roughly 90 pounds of cocaine.

The drugs were found on the Ping May, which is a vessel operated by the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a company owned by Mitch McConnell’s in-laws, the Chao family. This connection is not only relevant because of the family connection, but also because the Chao family has often made large donations to McConnell’s campaigns.

In fact, the Chao family has been funding McConnell since the late 1980s. Years later, in 1993, McConnell married Elaine Chao and secured the Chao family as one of his primary sources for investments.

A gift worth somewhere between 5 and 25 million dollars from the Chao Family made McConnel one of the richest senators in the country in 2008.

The Foremost Maritime Corporation is currently operating 16 dry bulk cargo ships, most of which are currently still in service.

What makes this case even more interesting is that McConnell is well known as a staunch prohibitionist. In 1996, McConnell sponsored “The Enhanced Marijuana Penalties Act”, a bill designed to increase the mandatory minimum sentencing for people caught with marijuana.

Luis Gonzales, an official with the Colombian Coast Guard in Santa Marta told The Nation that the Ping May’s crew were questioned as part of the investigation, but that they have yet to file any charges in the case.

The war on drugs is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. There are mountains of evidence proving that the biggest importers of harmful, addictive, mind diminishing street drugs is the government. The drug laws that exist do not apply to the government agencies that bring these substances to our country. They are only designed to keep everyone else from this extremely lucrative business and give the establishment another reason to oppress people.


Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/90...nti-drug-senators-family/#KyFP5gYVvGxbrZXj.99
Click to expand...
drug_mentor said:
My understanding is quite different, I actually only have knowledge of the case based on the handful of articles that were posted in DitM on the subject a while ago, I have not seen it it in the news otherwise.

This article claims that,

If that is true then there was at least one occasion where FedEx may not have had outright knowledge that packages from certain sources contained drugs but at the least they had good reason to suspect that was the case. I fucking hate the US Government and the Drug War, but in this instance it seems to me like they gave FedEx the benefit of the doubt and FedEx decided to continue business as usual.

This article says,

If that is true it is pretty damning evidence against FedEx, the same article has a former employee on the record saying it was common knowledge among staff and management they delivered heaps of drugs. He also claims on one occasion he expressed strong and very justified concerns a particular client was using their service to distribute drugs (this person was eventually prosecuted successfully for distributing drugs) and he was told to continue delivering the packages for said client.
Click to expand...
that's what's fucked. They shouldn't have gotten in trouble fir doing what is right for the people.
 
Keeping drugs illegal makes selling drugs pretty profitable. Sure, there's no evidence to believe he knows it's there but still...
 
i understand that *either* the marshall islands, or nigerian, flags/registration are useful on cargo's for some (usually disreputable) reasons, but why would this boat be registered out of marshall islands, while flying a nigerian flag? I'm confused, and sure i'm missing something obvious. I guess I'd just expect registration to match the flag flown.
as to the senator's complicity, obviously there's nothing remotely strong enough here (that we can see, as spectators) to implicate him directly but at the same time this thing stinks to high-heavens. my gut tells me it's probably something where this has been on-going&understood, but it's hands-off enough that he's in the clear. I am surprised to see that the colo's haven't arrested a single person??
at minimum, the obvious question is "why was this guy worth the chao's funneling so much g'damn money?" I understand he's married to a chao, but it still stinks of 'foul play'(quotations because I don't consider the actual act of transporting drugs to be wrong, in and of itself; I do, however, have a problem w/ someone who does so w/o giving 2-shits about what they're doing, who is doing it solely because of profit margins that they themselves help to keep high by continuing the war, all the while profiting on the side. That's sinister shit, and (obviously) it's easy to understand/empathize with ppl who end up in situations like this and do what most ppl would do, but it's still reprehensible to be someone who doesn't use drugs, yet sits in a spot where they're profiting (indirectly) from prohibition, they're simultaneously endorsing prohibition (and their voice matters)... it's just flagrant disregard for the drug issue in general (ie, for ppl's rights)
 
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