Drug Officials Note Cocaine Shortage

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^^^^ Agreed. There's a bigger shortage of common sense than there is cocaine.
 
u know the more i think about shit like this, the more i truly suspect who was behind this bogus report....*caugh*columbians/mexican drug lords*caugh*

"yo mang, these los are going for 2 more each now cause of this drought....what? u havent heard? go look on CBS....in fact we need 3 more on each one now"
 
^^^^ As I mentioned earlier, it is a good business strategy for the toot salesmen to "create a shortage" and have the feds advertise that fact for them.

But in this case it's just the feds amassing fake brownie points to take to congress at the next budget hearings.
 
What you're referring to is monopolistic actions, and that would require the cartels to work with each other. My general understanding is that they don't work together, but rather go to war with each other.

If there's no true collaboration, there can be no artificial shortages (as any cartel that lowered production to raise prices would just sell less, as the other cartels would outsell them. They would all need to agree to creating artificially lower supplies, and not break their agreement. I think that's beyond what they're capable of right now)
 
That's hard to say. I know it did happen in 1999 in the NYC area. Grams went from $30 to $50 at the retail level and have stayed there ever since.

If there had actually been a shortage, one would have expected the prices to creep back down.

But what you're saying is essentially correct in the general sense.
 
bingalpaws said:
What you're referring to is monopolistic actions, and that would require the cartels to work with each other. My general understanding is that they don't work together, but rather go to war with each other.

If there's no true collaboration, there can be no artificial shortages (as any cartel that lowered production to raise prices would just sell less, as the other cartels would outsell them. They would all need to agree to creating artificially lower supplies, and not break their agreement. I think that's beyond what they're capable of right now)
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It is wrong to assume that rival factions of the criminal underground are unable to collude to reap enormous profits.

With billion dollar organizations intelligence and counter intelligence gathering is essential.

It is easy for one group to start raising prices, and the others to follow step, to increase profits.
 
^
Prices would have gone down at the dealer's end. The end user would end up paying the same, if not close to the same, but would notice a change in purity.
 
9mmCensor said:
It is easy for one group to start raising prices, and the others to follow step, to increase profits.
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Or they may sell at a lower price and profit from moving more product than the guys charging more.
 
in january in detroit, bricks were running 14,000, now their 22,000

we just now seen a small drop in the price, but word on the street is, the mexicans are startin back up.
 
phrozen said:
Or they may sell at a lower price and profit from moving more product than the guys charging more.
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dependant on if you have the extra product to fill that void.

Or you can stockpile an surplus, while selling at the new high price to continue to make profit, and save that for a rainy day, or simply wait to flood the market with lots of product or really good product later, in order to wage economic war on rivals.

There are lots and lots of possibilities on how this can work.
 
Yes cocaine sells for $10,000+ a key in Columbia.

This is a fact.

Hell, a pound of outdoor marijuana costs $250+ in Columbia.

Even buying enough coca leafs at the farmers auctions to make a kilo is going to cost you $2,000+.

Then you need to get a hold of the chemicals (kerosene etc), which are sold at a premium in SA because they are a very closely watched item.

When all is said in done, even if you are operating a lab and processing it yourself you are lucky to get a key of pure for $4,000 not counting bribes.

Then you can sell it for $10,000 a key to smugglers, which isn't bad because $6,000 is a years salary to most people in SA, so you can get rich fast especially if you lab is pushing out 100s of keys a month.

Considering you can take that kilo, cut it with a key of lidocaine, and still sell both keys for $30,000 in most states, your talking about a $50,000 profit if you manage to get it back to the USA and sell it without getting caught.

Alternatively, many lab operators smuggler it themselves and make $60,000+ on a $4,000 key, cutting out smugglers all together.

In 1970 a kilo still cost $10,000+ in Columbia, and that was when you could get a brand new pimpin' Mercedes Benz off the fuckin' lot for $5,000.

The lowest an ounce will ever sell in the USA is $600, Asian organized crime sells it for that in Philadelphia (saw it myself), but it is taking a 4 to 1 hit at least, your talking 25% at best.

Same with Asian Beasters you get quantity over quality.

An ounce of anything decent is going to run you $1000+.
 
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Well, the UN WDR lied about their prices if they go for $10k in Colombia. Hmm, who to believe?

I'm sorry a key is not $10k in Colombia.
 
But yoze, dude, Ize gets gator scales on da southern tip cuz dat shit be freakin da seen, an Ize da baddest dude on bluelight. Rollers for fitty-cent, bad-ass "negrito" black-tar herion, an I drive the sherman through town evry night wid my ho's who all wanna suck my 20" johnson. I'm da baddest, yo guys will neva be as bad as me, yo, give up.

lol. The kind of dick-sizing where less means "more". Intelligence not required.
 
phrozen said:
Or they may sell at a lower price and profit from moving more product than the guys charging more.
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That's the problem in market collusion - it only works when all of the major players participate. If there's, say, 3 major cartels moving product into the country, and they collude with each other to hold product back, or raise prices, they'll be able to profit more. In a pure economic model, they could figure out exactly what quantity, and what price, they should be putting coke through at.

*however*, if any of the cartels break this collusion, they will make crazy cash at the expense of the others. So, for this to work, they need to be able to trust each other. And the things I've been reading about the cartels don't make me think they trust each other enough. If you've got cartels A, B, and C doing 90% of the volume in the country, and they decide to collude to increase profits, and cartel A breaks their agreement, cartel A will make crazy cash at the expense of B and C. Now, given the underground nature of this market, it's pretty easy to break any collusion agreements without being caught by the other players. I just don't think they have the trust in each other, and even if they did, I think the illicit / underground nature of their business kind of stops, or significantly impairs, their ability to collude on prices / quantities like that.



Think of it in a small town example, where you have 3 major dealers. They could all talk to each other, and decide to raise prices of pot from $200 an ounce to 250 an ounce. *but*, if one breaks their agreement and sells at 200, they'll be selling their product like crazy, and the other two will be hurting. In a small town example, howver, they can figure out real easily that player A is breaking the agreement, and selling at 200 again. I just don't see how cartels could ever monitor each other enough to satisfy their suspicions that the other cartels aren't breaking the agreements.


Of course, if only 1 cartel is bringing, like, 80% of the product across, then they can pretty easily do such things on their own. It's the multi-entity approach, in illicit markets, that seems prone to failure.
 
^
Exactly. I don't think collusion is very likely, at least not in an illegal market in Colombia. Especially because the cartels may have different political motivations and it's far to easy to take over the other cartel's piece with violence.
 
columbians just supply the leaves and shit these days....mexicans control everything from production to smuggling to distribution.

not saying there isnt a columbian cartel but they lost influence when mexicans seized power slowly as the major cartels(columbian)kept falling...the explosion of meth didnt hurt either.

mexicans are less organized in the sense that the money is being spread alot more....thats why in the SAME fucking city, you can know one mexican who sells u fire for $20k per while another one a few miles down the road may do it for $16

what i mean buy this, its not like mafia style set prices set people set rules

its not structured its networked
 
Yes and enough coca leafs to produce a kilo of pure blow alone cost $2,000+

That is bare minimum.

I saw an entire special on CourtTV about the farmer's markets in Columbia.

There is fierce competition over the coca leafs in SA.

Enough Coca leafs to make a kilo can go as high as $5,000 in extreme drought conditions in certain area, but the standard price is around $2,500.

In Mexico the price is even higher, bare minimum $12,000+ a key, and $350+ for a pound of outdoor marijuana.

About 2% of all cocaine smuggled into the USA is actually seized, you gotta understand cocaine is extremely valuable even in Mexico and SA, once you have the quality product, bringing it to market in the USA is child's play.

And you can easily take that kilo and sell it for $60,000+ after processing, and that is selling it all at once wholesale, if you sell in ounces your talking about $100,000+.
 
^dude you are wrong.

$350 per bootie for outdoor?!?! are u fucking kidding? i saw a pound for $700 just last week all the way in the southeast, USA...thats an average price for average "mids"(aka green compressed weed w/some seeds)....no way they pay that much.

if ur good at it, its not hard to grow good outdoor weed....its not like they care if it turns out dank just needs to smoke.

no way man no way
 
Yes the average price for a pound of quality outdoor in Mexico is $350.

I have many, many, many friend in Mexico and you can not get a pound for less than $350 in Tijuana or any Mexican border town.

If you buy 100+ pounds might get down to $200 a pound.

Then you can sell it for $700 in Texas, $1,000 in Colorado, $1,500+ in the NE etc.

I am not wrong, I am 100% right.

You people who think you can get $50 pounds of weed, or $700 kilos of cocaine anywhere in the world have no idea what the fuck your talking about.

A decent vacation home in Mexico these days is gonna run ya $1500+ a month, Mexico is not the shit hole it once was, money doesn't go as far.

And like I said even as far back as 1970 a kilo of coke was $10,000+ in SA.
 
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