Why is this stupid?

[quale]

I don't really know much about the issue but I think you have overlooked the difficulty in bribing local officials and that of transporting things into the US.
No doubt local officials are bribeable, but not for $5 so you need a large amount of cash to start up. Moreover, unless you know what you are doing or have other contacts what prevents them from simply taking the money and then busting you.
Also you underestimate the risk involved in using mules. If they are mules they must have some contact on the US side to drop their shit off with and when they are caught what prevents them from ratting that contact out (and in turn them ratting on you). If they know who you are and what you are up to they just get you raided by the mexicans.
Real cartels probably rely alot on fear to solve both these problems. The law enforcement stays bought because they don't want them or their family shot..similarly people don't rat up the organization. Of course alot of people do this sort of thing (this is why so many drugs come across texas) but of course this means you are in competition with them as well.

 

[Brainrape]

"OK, corruption is everywhere around here and you can basically buy anything and anyone..."
Exactly my point.
Whether I have the financial means to or not is irrelevant, as this is all a hypothetical situation. I'm not saying ANYTHING about the cost of all of this and it's foolish to even guess at one.
Also, hypothetically in a judical system so ingrained in corruption that a member of it's own citizenship states the blunt truth, you can buy anything and anyone, it stands to reason that legal issues would be reduced to nothing more than a matter of money...and...
Money would fail to become an issue due to the extreme profit that is a result of your venture. All it that is needed is the inital start-up capital to invest and maintain until profit is achieved.
Also, why are we assuming I have to bribe so many fucking people. I could simply move into a residence or start up a small business like a normal person, it's not as if all of fucking Mexico has to know know what I am doing. The bribing of local officals while almost inevitable is being viewed as a back-up scenario IF anyone gets too curious....
Well, you have done nothing but reaffirm the practice I have seen in action on every trip I have made to Mexico, that everything including the law is for sale. And thus illegal activities all the way up to drug production can thrive and PROPSER in Mexico...
Only my inital question hasn't been answered yet, why the fuck aren't more people doing this?
Also to note, Cartel distribution of drugs only makes up a percentage of the drug distribution pie that is Mexico. I recall a statistic dictating something like only 60% of the Mexican "marijuana trade" is cartel controlled in Mexico, the other 40% of trade is essentially run by "mom & pop" organizations that work on a much smaller scale. There is room for both to co-exsist.
So it's not as if some goddamn drug cartel is going to kill me for having 2 or 3 kilos of (insert drug) run across the border by mules once or twice a month just to make a small tidy bit of cash. Looking in my direction and actually taking action would be a fucking joke with all the work they must do to transport thier thousands of TONS of (insert drug) every fucking day.
Living in Texas for so many years and having several friends of Mexican descent which includes having visited thier families in Mexico, I am familiar with basic Mexican socio-economic functions and the drug spectrum on BOTH sides of the border to a small extent. So...
I don't think I am mis-representing or underestimating the Mexican public or people in anyway. I am simply stating my own personally observed statements that have been more than adequatley backed up by an actual law student and resident of Mexico. All of you who mis-interpreted my initial post as some demonic condemnation of Mexico need to lighten the fuck up and realize that I would NEVER waste my time typing such a long post about destiute countries like Mexico without an HONEST desire to shamelessley exploit them.
Freedom via corruption is all right in my book.
Brainrape
PS- And about the "racial" jokes, give me a fucking break, you cannot be serious. Next I bet you'll say the Holocaust really happened and that women should actually get equal rights.

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"Rock and roll adolescents storm into the streets of all nations. They rush into the Louvre and throw acid in the Mona Lisa's face. They open zoo's, insane asslyums, prisons, burst water mains with air hammers, Chop the floor out of passanger plane lavatories, shoot out lighthouses, turn sewers into the water supply, administer injections with bicycle pumps. They shit on the floor of the United Nations and wipe thier ass with the treaties, pacts, alliances."

 

[Curious_George]

Have you heard of Strike?
"The fool who pursues his folly will become wise."--William Blake

 

[AbraMontague]

I've been to Mexico a few times, and except for resort areas like Cancun and Kosumel, I think Brainrape's description is pretty accurate.

 

[TDK2FE]

You aren't seeing a lot of factors that would come into play here. You seem pretty confident that your "mules" are going to make it across the border effortlessly and not get caught. If they do get caught, what makes you think these people would take the fall for you? The DEA would want to know where they got the shit, and it would come back to you in exchange for immunity.
Also, if you have ever actually been to mexico you would know that what you describe is going on, and people make plenty of money just off of the tourists down there. I went in to a leather store and was offered cocaine. I was talking to a guy on the street and he said for $5 he would get me a script for valium, codeine, anything i wanted. Why try and export your goods when in Nogales, Tijuana, Baranquilla, and Cancun you have thousands of kids looking for your shit.
Also, you underestimate america's involvement with the international war on drugs. Those billions of dollars are going somewhere, and usually its invested in seeking out and destroying producers and labs.
And finally, small-time trafficking doesn't pay off that much. The real money is dealing on the streets. Say you make a deal, and score some coke for $5 a gram for 5 kilos, in which you spend $25000, and you have your mules take this across the border into america. You'd need people to sell it to, and a way to get the money back, etc...
You aren't the first person to think of an idea like this, as many have tried and are doing the very same thing as we speak. There are many risks involved, which is why you don't see it happening more often.

 

[Brainrape]

Let me just restate, that this was all just a hypothetical fucking query. I never thought about this in any sort of detail at all so if it seems like this is a rushed not very well thought out idea, that's because it was. I thought about it tweaking balls bullshitting with a friend during registration, 5 minutes later I was probably talking about some other dumb shit. I have no practical want or ability to do any of the aforementioned things, just wondering why it wasn't done more, that's all, it never needed to be such a big deal...
Anyways, thanks for all the replies...
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"Rock and roll adolescents storm into the streets of all nations. They rush into the Louvre and throw acid in the Mona Lisa's face. They open zoo's, insane asslyums, prisons, burst water mains with air hammers, Chop the floor out of passanger plane lavatories, shoot out lighthouses, turn sewers into the water supply, administer injections with bicycle pumps. They shit on the floor of the United Nations and wipe thier ass with the treaties, pacts, alliances."

 

[PhreeX]

1) Mexico is cracking down on these type operations.. one of your mules gets busted and there is a damn good chance you go down..
2) There are a TON of people doing the same thing you want to do, only about on a scale 100 times larger... they don't like competition, and ratherthen write a strongly worded letter, they will kill you and dump your body, then raid your lab..
3) You have fewer rights in Mexico.. you think US jail is bad? Ha!
You're best off doing as we did - get a place with no close houses, be carefull in ordering stuff - order everythingfrom somewhere else - ie order your boiling flasks from one company and your condensers from another... for chemicals multiply the paranois by 10 ... if you think "I think I am being to paranoid" then you're not being paranoid enough... we had a house on about 2 acers of land, ended up cranking out about 1/2lb of meth a week, made a few batches of MDMA, some 4-MAR, and a few other things... had we really went full force we could have cranked out a pound a week... didn't get caught because we were paranoid!
(of course the above is hypothetical)
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"I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don't care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is: 'What are they in a position to do about it?'" (William S. Burroughs)