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Data Mining, Cocaine and Secrecy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-they-probably-have-clusters dept.

hightimes writes: "Business 2.0 uncovers one of the world's most sophisticated IT network in where else, Colombia. According to the story, Colombian drug cartels have spent billions of dollars to build a huge infrastructure that's helping them smuggle more dope than ever before." Even though this is about a raid that took place most of a decade ago, it's an interesting example of the power (and potential abuse) of large-scale data mining.

18 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, are they hiring?

    1. Re:Well... by warpSpeed · · Score: 5, Funny

      Prolly, but I'm sure it would be a life time career move. And if you screw up, a PHB is the least of your concerns, you'll be sleeping with the fishes.

  2. Re:Computers by GodInHell · · Score: 5, Funny

    What were they trying to do? Send cocaine over Cat5 Cabling?

    Heh, Packet sniffing takes on whole new dimensions.

    -GiH
    A goose is loose in the sluce for juice.

  3. Dopewars by akiy · · Score: 5, Funny
    And you thought all of those hours you spent playing Dopewars were all just a simulation...

    (Dopewars: Unix, Palm, Macintosh, and Windows versions.)

    --

    --
    http://www.aikiweb.com - AikiWeb Aikido Information

  4. Just wait till they get the bill from Oracle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    They'll have to buy a client license for every drug user they supply. That should promptly clean out their "unlimited" budget.

    1. Re:Just wait till they get the bill from Oracle... by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
      > Hah, just wait until they get the "audit or else" order from M$. Man, talk about organized crime warfare. This could make the St. Valentine's Day Massacre look like a water-pistol fight.

      Lessee here...

      Step 1) Columbian drug lords vs. BSA lawyers.

      Step 2) Make the St. Valentine's Day Massacre look like water pistol fight.

      Step 3) ???^H^H^HPay-per-view live video on Slashdot!

      Step 4) PROFIT!

  5. Article Revealing by stoolpigeon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The so-called Santacruz computer was never returned to Colombian authorities, and the DEA's report about it is highly classified. But Business 2.0 has ferreted out many of its details.

    It must not have been too highly classified. It it was and some internet magazine can figure it out then you have to wonder if this data mining system was overkill. They say it was used to find moles and then the undercover agents would be assasinated. Personally I wouldn't want to be an agent for some agency that can't keep this kind of stuff under wraps.

    There are times when keeping things secret is a good thing. Our government seems incapable of doing so most of the time. (on a side note this is why I don't buy into most conspiracy theories-- the govt. is way too inefficient at keeping things quiet)

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    1. Re:Article Revealing by JoeBuck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you read an article like this, the first thing you should be considering is what the agenda is. The DEA probably leaked the info on purpose, perhaps to try to promote its agenda of getting more money for the Colombian drug wars.

      Whenever you see a story in the press quoting anonymous sources or leaks, remember that the sources and leakers have an axe to grind.

    2. Re:Article Revealing by Zazm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well you did say flame away....

      Point by point:

      1. So you don't think that a .gov agency would use any opportunity they can find to try and screw more money for their own little empire? Have you ever worked for the gov? Have you ever worked for any large organisation at all?

      2. You see people who's lives are devestated by "drugs". And yet I see people who's lives are devestated by drug laws. How is putting someone in prison for hurting themselves supposed to be good for them? Or for their families? Oh but of course drugs are bad for you aren't they? And yet is the morphine they use at the hospital "bad" for you? No? Why not? Could it be that hospital grade drugs are just a little bit cleaner than the crap sold on the street in a totally unregulated market? What happened to alcohol when it was illegal - people sold crappy moonshine that made people blind. Yet today I can buy a bottle with confidence that it won't send me blind and I can see from the label exactly how strong it is. Why? Because it's legal and manufacturers have public liabilty. Get it straight in your head, drugs aren't exactly nutritionally rich but most of the damage you see is caused by impurities in the drugs caused because drugs are a black market item.

      3. Would I like a meth lab in the house next door? Not really. Would you like the Johnny Walker brewery in the house next door to you? Not really? Funny that. In a legalised regulated environment their wouldn't be back yard labs where explosions are common. Backyard labs are a product of the war on drugs, not the cause. Bigots like you keep using the unfortunate results of the war on drugs to wage even more war. Talk about simplistic, talk about cyclical. Talk about plain stupid.

      4. What an insight, cigaretts are expensive and people still buy them. Their expensive (at least here is Australia) because they have the crap taxed out of them. Without tax they'd be about $1.50 a packet (in .au anyway). The .au gov makes billions of tabacco tax but zero off (currently illegal) drug taxes. Instead of making money on taxes they're spending money on a futile and self destructive war. Again, it's just plain stupid.

      5. Addicts can't hold jobs? I held a fucking job every fucking day for the 5 years I used heroin and so did most of my friends. Why don't you try talking about something you have a clue about.

      6. So now drug users are "damaged"? What kind of bigot are you. Have you forgotten that alcohol and tabacco are also drugs, just ones that are legal.

      7. You're riled up? Have you any idea the kind of suffering narrow minded bigots like you cause?

      Why try to stop people using drugs? You might as well try to hold back the tide. Yet still we try and still agencies like the DEA would like you to think it's feasible, if only they had more money because the bad guys have lots of money and that must be why we can't seem to beat them.

      Ah shit, you know what? Just let it all burn. I give up.

    3. Re:Article Revealing by logicnazi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its just your opionion but you should fucking think about it before you post!!

      Reforming the war on drugs is one of my principal interests, but I am not entierly blind to opposing positions and there are some reasonable arguments to support the war on drugs. However, these arguments just don't appear in your post. While I have done it many times before let me go through it point by point.

      --
      Would everyone here like to legalize meth labs too? How about legalizing one in the house next door or the apartment below yours?

      What's an explosion or two in your neighborhood?
      --

      So let us suppose we legalize meth labs. What do you suppose is more cost efficent?
      a) cooking meth in your apartment.
      b) A large chemical production facility which turns out meth. THE SAME WAY ALL OTHER INDUSTRIAL/PHARMACUETICAL CHEMICALS ARE PRODUCED?

      Meth labs blow up not because there is anything essentially dangerous about meth production (hell it is way easier than making prozac) but because it is illegal so it is done by someone without chemical traning in a basement.

      --

      Not too mention the utter silliness of the idea that legalizing drugs would drop prices and eliminate drug related crime. It just wouldn't happen. People will charge what the market will bear and addicts will bear anything to get a fix. Don't think so. In N.Y. City cigarettes now cost 7.50 a pack and people still buy them.
      --

      Well for starters cigarettes cost $7.50 a pack not because this is the price the free market has settled on but because of taxation by the city. Thus what the price of cigarettes is set at is hardly relevant.

      Yes the drug addicts will pay any price *necessery* to aquire their drugs. However, drugs are the ultimate commodity item. An addict could give a fuck which brand name heroin he scores as long as it is heroin. Now from basic economics we see that in a competitive market the price of a commodity drops to the cost of production (yes in a monopoly it will be increased as high as the market will bear but a legal drug market will have plenty of competition). Take a look at the UK/netherlands plans to prescribe heroin to addicts...legal opiates (and certainly legal synthetic drugs like meth) are cheap as ass to produce. The rarity is caused by police enforcement not any essential high price of precursurs.

      --
      And since addicts can't hold jobs and drugs will never be free- they will always be stealing, mugging, etc. to feed their habit. Not to mention my cost for health care for the drug babies. And that wont stop after they are out of Pediatric ICU. They are damaged. They will grow up and become a burden on society- because their parents made poor life choices. The whole thing is sickening.
      --

      If you had been keeping up with the research you would be aware that "crack babies" were pretty much debunked. The decreased performance seen on babies born to crack addicts and etc.. disappeared as soon as the effects of legal drugs (alcohol and tobacco) were accounted for.

      In fact ironically enough it is alcohol which is particularly bad at harming fetuses.

      Do drugs deystroy lives. Certainly. However, this is mostly a result of legal and economic consequences of the drug war.

      Some drugs such as meth, ecstasy etc.. are never going to be able to be used for long periods of time because they cause neurological damage to the user. However, other drugs which, if readily availible, would be abused instead such as heroin don't have these problems.

      Long medical experience with opiates, as well as the large number of upper class mothers who were addicted to laudinum in the early 1900s, show that opiate depence does not cause neurological harm and in fact that opiate users will do work to get their fix. Add to this the wonderful fact that new synthetic opiates are *ridiclously* strong and you have addicts getting their fix for well under a dollar a day. A fucking welfare check would cover this.

      There was an interesting article written some time ago (in the mercury news I believe) about heroin addiction amoung programers. Now certainly the individual in question wasnt happy about his heroin habit (alot of this seemed to stem from his excesive spending and need to hide his habit at work) but it was clear that he was able to hold down a high paying programming job to support his habit. If it was cheap and legal no one would be stealing to get a fix.

      Another fun fact (though I can't remember my source for this). Of the hundred or so drug related homicides in LA something like 2 of them were related to drug use while the rest somehow involved distribution or sale. In other words the violence simply isn't commited by the drug user but by the illicit dealer. As I have yet to see Hoffman-LaRouche employees do a driveby on Bayer I think it is safe to say in a legal market this would disappear.

      Yes, we should be carefull so we don't create a country where kids see glamorous heroin coke commercials and all become addicts at age 10 but this is an entierly differnt issue. Not to mention that a life in jail is certainly far more harmfull and unpleasant than a life addicted to drugs.

      --

      If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:

  6. This plays into govt's hands... by Audent · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'd be sceptical about any claims in this piece about "highly classified documents"... surely this is something the guys in grey suits would love to see as it gives them the perfect ammunition to enact all kinds of new and exciting laws. Buying a router? register with your local cop shop. Using an IP address? register with your local cop shop... Here in NZ we're getting new laws to deal with criminals using technology because apparently it's going to be a big issue one day. One day. I asked how many crimes were committed using text messaging or email and the answer is: none. Not one. Which begs the question: why are these laws necessary yet? It's not like govts have a good track record on being pro-active when it comes to legislation so why this time?
    I know I'm preaching to the choir here ... well, some of you anyway.

    --
    I am a leaf on the wind
  7. And of course... by Codex+The+Sloth · · Score: 5, Funny

    They must be using Snort for intrusion detection.

    Snif snif ...

    --
    I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you ... oh wait, I'm #93427. Ha ha! In your face #93428!
  8. Not suprising by prockcore · · Score: 4, Funny

    With the amount of cocaine and coffee in columbia, i'm suprised they didn't build the entire infrastructure in a single evening. Followed by cleaning the entire country top to bottom.

  9. This isn't real data mining by CySurflex · · Score: 5, Informative

    Searching for matching records in a database (phone call logs) with known values (phone #'s of known agents) is not data mining. It's simply setting up an indexed data warehouse and issuing queries.

    Data Mining is looking for UNKNOWN relationships between that data, not KNOWN relationships. So although referring to it as Data Mining may make it sound advanced and exotic, it's incorrect.

    - CySurflex

  10. Re:Technology is NOT the problem .. by doorbot.com · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mod the parent down. Porn picture or no porn picture, the last thing we need is a link to a personal site with ads which simply redirects to the actual site provided. If you have a link to post, post the real thing. We don't need your redirects. Thankfully it was blocked by my anti-banner ad HOSTS file.

    The datamining link should be:
    www.ccsu.edu/datamining/resources.html

  11. Organized crime and technology by Ulwarth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course organized crime is going to abuse the power that technology brings. They aren't regulated and don't answer to anyone. We could wipe out these cartels overnight by legalizing and regulated the trade of cocaine and other recreational drugs - just like we do for alcohol.

    http://neoteric.nu/history.html

  12. i can see it now... by bilbobuggins · · Score: 5, Funny
    when your warehouse in Poughkeepsie automatically links up with your hit men in Columbia...


    ...that's 1 degree of seperation. That's business w/ .NET.


    (yeah, it was low;)

  13. Cue the 70s music... by selan · · Score: 4, Funny
    ba da da DUM ba da DUM
    ba da da DUM ba da DUM

    If you wanna deal, you gotta use SQL, cocaine
    If you wanna get stoned, you gotta write the code, cocaine
    Data mine, data mine, data mine, COCAINE

    ba da da DUM ba da DUM
    ba da da DUM ba da DUM...

    Data mine, data mine, data mine, COCAINE