Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:51 am Posts: 15460 Location: Long Island, New York
Lindsay Lohan better watch out!
'BIN LADEN'S COCAINE PLOT' Osama bin Laden tried to buy a massive amount of cocaine, spike it with poison and sell it in the United States hoping to kill thousands, according to reports.
The plot failed when Colombian drug lords decided it would be bad for business if they got involved in the deal.
An investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration has examined how advanced the plot became when it was hatched a year after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The Washington Post has reviewed a document detailing the DEA's findings in the matter, in addition to interviewing sources familiar with the case.
Osama bin Laden personally met leaders of a Colombian drug cartel to in 2002 to negotiate the purchase of tons of cocaine, saying that he was willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to finance the deal.
"They wanted to kill thousands of people - more than the World Trade Centre," said a source.
Although the drug lords would have reaped millions of dollars in profits by selling the cocaine to bin Laden, they knew that if his plan succeeded it might effectively destroy the market for their cocaine in America.
The other was their fear of retaliation from the US government once its citizens started to die from the drugs, according to sources.
In 2002, the then DEA Director Asa Hutchinson said: "The DEA [has] received multi-source information that Osama bin Laden himself has been involved in the financing and facilitation of heroin-trafficking activities.
"It is important we recognise that when money goes from the pocket of an American to buy drugs, it may contribute to the financing of unspeakable crimes of violence around the world."
Earlier this year, Afghan tribal leader Hajji Bashir Noorzai who was one of the most wanted drug dealers in the world and previously had been identified as bin Laden's major heroin supplier, was arrested in New York City on federal criminal charges.
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:45 am Posts: 1836 Location: Up Yer Maw
Feds snort at Post's coke tale
Federal drug agents are discrediting a New York Post front-page story that Osama Bin Laden tried to buy tons of Colombian cocaine to spike with poison and resell to Americans.
In a blaring story Tuesday headlined "Bin Laden Coke Plot," Post reporter Dan Mangan claimed the Drug Enforcement Administration was investigating the scheme.
But that was news to DEA officials.
"The New York Post has refused to inform DEA of the basis of its allegations or share the document upon which the reporting is based," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said in a statement.
"However, no DEA official in Washington, Afghanistan, Bogotá or New York has any information of this type of plot by Bin Laden, and a computerized search of our databases reveals no such reporting."
Quoting "law enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration's probe," the Post said the Colombian dealers rejected Bin Laden.
A law enforcement source told the Daily News that the DEA never had a probe - and any suggestion that Bin Laden had a plot to poison the nation's cocaine supply simply was not credible.
A Post spokeswoman said, "We stand by our story."
Elmer Smith | OSAMA'S 'COKE SCHEME': NOTHING TO SNIFF AT?
SOUNDS like something Osama might actually do.
His people in Colombia would cop a few tons of cocaine, lace it with poison and resell it in the United States, killing tens of thousands of Americans one snort at a time.
This, according to an "exclusive" front-page report in the New York Post yesterday, was the gist of a plot the Drug Enforcement Administration turned up this year. Fiendishly clever yet elegant in its simplicity, it sounds like a plan Osama's occasional allies in the South American cocaine cartels would leap at.
After all, you don't rise to the lofty level of drug lord by passing up a chance to bundle a few tons of your overstock for quick sale.
But the Post quotes what it claims are "sources familiar with the DEA's probe" who say that the Colombians Osama approached turned him down flat.
So far, I have been unable to locate any "sources familiar with the DEA's probe." The one source I did find at DEA disavowed any knowledge of the evil plot.
"The New York Post has refused to inform DEA of the basis of its allegations or share the document upon which the reporting is based," the DEA claimed in a release it e-mailed to me yesterday.
I know what it means. Post reporter Dan Mangan did not inform me of the basis of his allegations, either. "Sure," he answered hastily when I asked if he still stood by the story. That was quickly followed by, "Hold on, let me check with my editor."
Moments later, I was referred to Steve Rubenstein, at Rubenstein Associates, a firm that deflects flak for the Post. I'm still waiting to hear from him.
"No DEA official in Washington, Afghanistan, Bogota or New York," according to DEA, "has any information of this type of plot by bin Laden, and a computerized search of our databases reveals no such reporting."
Sources close to Mr. bin Laden are out of pocket, leaving us the choice to believe the DEA, the Post - or neither. I wouldn't put it past Osama. He has pledged to spend the last dime of his fabulous fortune to bring the great Satan to his (or our?) knees.
He has a long, well-documented history of supporting the drug trade from the Afghan poppy fields, which supply 70 percent of the world's opium. The DEA, in a 2002 report that I did read, claims that "U.S. intelligence has confirmed a connection" among Afghanistan's then-ruling Taliban, Osama and al Qaeda in the "cultivation, processing and trafficking of heroin."
Another report on the DEA's Web site details a connection between what it called "Islamic extremists" from Hezbollah and Hamas operating in the tri-border regions of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
So the idea that Osama would make such an offer is not all that far-fetched. Nor is it hard to believe that a drug dealer would turn him down flat.
Because Osama's scheme would be inconsistent with the dealers' long-range business plan, which is to push their own brand of poison as long as there are nostrils and veins open to them in America.
Business is good. The office of National Drug Control Policy says Americans spend more than $65 billion a year on drugs. Addicts rarely save receipts, but that estimate sounds about right. Point is that, while you won't see any drug lord's homes featured on "MTV Cribs," it's a safe bet these guys are livin' large even without Osama's business.
Besides, what could be more counterproductive in the long run than killing off your customer base? I will continue to track down this story through my sources in Colombia, Kabul and Manhattan. Stay tuned.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:54 pm Posts: 12287 Location: Manguetown Gender: Male
well...kill junkies would be more like a fascism favor...
_________________ There's just no mercy in your eyes There ain't no time to set things right And I'm afraid I've lost the fight I'm just a painful reminder Another day you leave behind
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
See, this is capitalism at its best: the suppliers are self policing because the market will punish them if they don't continue producing a safe, quality product.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:51 am Posts: 15460 Location: Long Island, New York
simple schoolboy wrote:
See, this is capitalism at its best: the suppliers are self policing because the market will punish them if they don't continue producing a safe, quality product.
That's exactly what I wrote back to the guy who sent me the article.
_________________
lutor3f wrote:
Love is the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock
Uh, the media would have spread news of coke poisoning as fast as they would have for poisoned brands of food. It wouldn't have made it past a few dozen deaths in the South.
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