Slashdot Mirror
Meth Dealer Faces Loss of His Comic Book Collection
cultiv8 writes "According to an article from The Smoking Gun: 'A large-scale methamphetamine dealer who allegedly laundered drug profits by purchasing valuable comic books is in danger of forfeiting his 18,753-volume collection to Uncle Sam, according to a new court filing. Federal prosecutors yesterday filed a US District Court complaint seeking ownership of the comic book holdings of Aaron Castro, 30, who is facing a May trial in Colorado on narcotics distribution and weapons charges. The comics are valued in excess of $500,000.'"
Do not bang your head against the display case, please! There is a very valuable Mary Worth inside, in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide. Thank you!
... It's a meth dealer! It's a shame that these comics will probably be ruined in some humid evidence locker for a few years until he goes to trail. I guess he'll just have to read regular "affordable" comics while he's in prison.
I can't for the life of me figure out why this merits a Slashdot story. Even if you conclude "Slashdot readers are geeks, geeks have comic book collections" it's pretty unlikely that many Slashdot readers use their collections to launder drug money.
But...but...they are his retirement fund! In 50 years he'll be able to sell them to some other obese nerd who will then put them away as their retirement fund! Comic books will never lose value! THEY HAVE COLLECTOR'S VALUE!!!!
Forfeiture of all of one's earthly possessions is a common punishment for being suspected of a drug-related crime. It reminds me of similar forfeitures required in the past.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
It is absolutely normal that the assets made with crimes get confiscated. Maybe except for the not so usual form of investment, why is this worthy mentioning?
At least he didn't invest in beanie babies.
The war on drugs is nothing more than a war on the American people by a bunch of holier-than-thou moral imperialists. It has squandered trillions of dollars in taxpayer money and claimed tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives over the years. It doesn't stop drug use and merely floods our prisons with people whose only "crime" is simple possession. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol and it certainly isn't working for drugs.
He was just swiching from trading illegal, addictive substances to other market addictive, but this time legal, things, and they put him in jail?
Can you imagine the place in prison hierarchy for comic book guy?
Sex, drugs and comic books... although since this is comic book guy, he probably skipped on sex... until now.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The guy is allegedly laundering money with the comic books. The police are confiscating the evidence. What makes this unusual?
These comic books may be expensive, but I doubt that they're valuable.
Today's Google Doodle is a tribute to Will Eisner and The Spirit
It took a long time for the comic book to gain respectability as the "graphic novel."
But the Americam comic strip and comic book have attracted some very gifted artists and writers from the beginning. The Will Eisner Hall of Fame
That's not true. When people say meth they mean something that's cooked up by somebody without any quality controls and it's really not the same thing as the chemical equivalent produced by pharmaceutical corporations. Suggesting this is a tug-o-war about legitimate distribution completely misses the point. There is no QA that goes into street drugs, no screenings about medical necessity, counter indications or any way of knowing how big the effective dosage is. And the main goal of the dealer is to get the buyer hooked.
It's a very different case on either side, and trivializing it isn't helping anybody out.
That's intentional on samzenpus' part. He knows that almost everyone filters idle so he posts idle stories usually under YRO or some other completely inappropriate categories so his shit is still polluting the front page.
in the Property Room? Cos if he is, those comic books are history.
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
And the main goal of the dealer is to get the buyer hooked.
And just what do you think the main goal of your entire economic system is?
She goes running to the shelter
of her mother's little helper
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Did you bring enough for the whole class?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Crockett: "I need a new Ferrari! Didn't we confiscate anything from drug dealers that I can drive!?!?!"
Castillo: "Sorry, Sonny, no. But here, read some Incredible Hulk, Spider Man and Richie Rich. It will cheer you up.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Not to mention that there is a big, big, difference between methamphetamine and methylphenadate, the safer and much more common amphetamine prescribed today.
Not to mention the fact that meth cookers leave behind serious toxic waste dumps all over the country... including "bottle cookers" thrown all over interstate highways.. as opposed to being skilled in the safe handling and regulated disposal of waste products.
If he had been trading houses to launder his drug money, this wouldn't have made page 34 of his local paper, much less the front page of Slashdot. Even so, there's not a whole lot to say about it.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
So let me get this straight: the difference between somebody cooking meth to sell in the Wal-mart parking lot and somebody cooking meth to sell in the Wal-mart pharmacy is quality control?
What if some illicit meth dealer did everything by the ISO standards and industry best practices?
So then what's the difference between somebody selling high-quality Blueberry Yum Yum with the little purple hairs and buds as big and juicy as cucumbers and Big Pharma selling some pills that deliver THC without the "making you feel good" part and charging $45 per pill to cancer patients who can't eat because of the chemo and their insurance company won't cover anyway?
If your point is that pharmaceutical companies are a very ugly part of the corporate tyranny that's working to keep people from having options or power, then I absolutely agree. If your point is that "illicit" drugs are a scourge because they don't come with a page of contraindications and possible side effects in 3-point type that's usually full of contradictory and misleading information anyway, then I'm not sure we're on the same page.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Assuming the facts are presented correctly, what this guy was doing is simple old fashioned money laundering. He was buying something with drug money so he could later sell it and have clean money. Comic books are actually a smart way to do this, its unlikely that anyone would suspect it.
Here's an example of how it may have worked:
1. Dude sells $500 of meth.
2. Dude takes the $500 cash to a comic book convention.
3. Dude buys a comic book for ~$500
4. Dude sells the same comic book for $450 in clean, crisp, legal bills
5. Repeat 1-4
6. Profit!
7.?
8. Prison!
Well, yes, there's more to it than just a squabble over who gets to produce the drug, but there's many actions on the part of the 'legitimate' side that give just that impression. It isn't the people cooking street meth that claim methamphetamine itself causes ulceration and loss of teeth - it's the DEA, saying that such symptoms are caused by abusing even the purest meth, not by any of the many adulterants or flaws in the street process. If the government is really out to protect people from the risks of cheap kitchen chemistry and drugs cut with rat poison, Then the government needs to tell the truth. Lie to people, tell them the drug itself causes the bad side effects, but not when it has the magical Barr Pharmaceuticals or DuraMed seal on it, and of course people will seize on that lie to prove it's all just a turf war.
Who is John Cabal?
A useful mental exercise on the topic of drugs. Imagine if the coca leaf had been known to the native Americans in North America, becoming part of their traditions, and the tobacco leaf had only been found in the south of the continent...
Yeah because meth has a legitimate medical use? Maybe you should try living in a community that has been devastated by meth. Then you might realize how trite and banal you college brat fight the man bullshit sounds.
I don't hold any sympathy for anyone in the Meth food chain. If this were Joe the pot guy losing his collection, I'd be just a bit bummed. But this is an entirely different ballgame. There's a whole class of drugs out there that really are "bad" drugs, and meth is one of 'em. Show me someone who's been smoking pot for 30 years, then go and try to find someone who's been doing meth for 30 years. Aside from a lack of motivation and a glorious set of man boobs, the pot head's probably ok. The meth user has probably either been dead for twenty years or in jail. The incredible screw job that meth does to your neurochemistry makes anything Glaxo SmithKlien is doing look like two cups of coffee and a mountain dew chaser.
A couple of apocryphal internet stories for you; A friend of mine moonlighted as a prison shrink while stationed in the Pacific Northwest in the AF. He ended up dealing with a lot of the royally fucked up folks. Those who weren't either A. genuine psychopaths or B. the products of horribly fucked up situations were meth addicts. According to him, the nicest guy he dealt with was an actual axe murderer who hacked up a couple of people while tweaked. Once he was in prison and clean, he wasn't a bad person.
My wife is a librarian. When we lived in northern Indiana, one of the more common problems that rural libraries faced was the loss of children's books due to meth lab exposure. The kids would check the book out, take it home, and it would come back reeking of the various chemicals the poor kid was being exposed to at home. If this guy spent any time around production, these comics are toast.
In short, fuck this guy. You want to bitch about the big bad government and your civil liberties? You want to be all cool and snarky by throwing a (tm) after the phrase "war on drugs", go do it on a norml forum. When it comes to tweaks, fuck 'em, there ain't a hole deep enough.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Yeah, what does the government seeking ownership of your property before you're even found guilty of a crime have to do with your rights?
Pretty much. I doubt most doctors with their limited patient interaction are actually doing a thorough diagnosis and checking for contradictions. The difference pretty much comes down to purity, amount used, and route of administration.
Desoxyn is approved for ADHD and weight loss. So according to the feds it does have a legitimate medical use. And all you need is a prescription from your doctor.
I've read enough comments here that seem to completely miss what is going on here and are completely ignorant on the abuse by our government in violating the Fourth Amendment. The assumption by everyone seems to be one of two things. Either the police are seizing property as evidence of a crime committed (in which case, you would presume it will be returned if he's found innocent) or that he has been found guilty and they're taking his ill-gotten gains.
That is not the case.
What they're doing is taking possession of someone's property. Someone who has not been convicted of a crime through a fair trial, yet. Then they're going to sell it and keep the profit. Does that sound right to you? Shouldn't you receive a trial and be found guilty of a crime, before paying for that crime?
In fact, not only do you not have to be found guilty through trial of an actual crime in this country for the government to steal your property and sell it for themselves, but you don't have to even be charged with a crime, in many cases. I went looking for something to explain it to those who care to be enlightened (by what I thought was common knowledge, but by the reactions on Slashdot to this article, seems to be foreign to 80% of us). I actually found a well composed video that from the Institute for Justice
(video 2m30s) - Policing for Profit - The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture
Essentially, what has been happening for about thirty years, is that instead of charging YOU with a crime, the government charges your PROPERTY with a crime. Your property can't defend itself, so it is assumed "guilty". They take the property, sell it at auction, and then split it up among various government departments. All without YOU being convicted. Or even tried in a court of law. Or even being charged with a crime. It is currently a billion-dollar scam in this country.
So save your "durr durr meth dealer bad!" bullshit. You aren't a hard-ass for saying "throw away the key!" or "execute this guy!" or "he deserves it!". You just look ignorant for not considering the due process we have in this country that protects people like you and me from being railroaded without evidence. Maybe the guy IS guilty. That's fine. If he's guilty, throw the book at him. The mere fact that someone has charged him with a crime doesn't mean he deserves punishment nor that he deserves to have his property stolen from him, auctioned off, and then split amongst his local government agencies.
"Captain Meth"
Table-ized A.I.
Th-th-th-that's all folks!
HRH The Duke of Windsor
Don't forget the kickbacks, mustn't forget those. You can tell what drug Big Pharma is pushing this year by going to your average GP and see what he is writing waaaay too many prescriptions for. In the case of my town it is the antibiotic known as "Z-Pac" which if you so much as sneeze is getting handed to you, even when a generic drug like Erythro would probably work just as well and certainly be cheaper on both the insurance companies and/or the government's wallets.
To say there is really much of a difference between Big Pharma and your average pusher is kinda BS. both don't care what they are selling as long as they make the money, both are happy to push anything no matter what the cost or side effects as long as it makes them $$$, and both are happy to give kickbacks to those that bring in the business.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Your dealer has the drugs that you want. Your doctor will give you the drugs that you "need" whether or not you want them. I mean who goes into their doctor requesting lipitor?
We used to call it "kiddie speed".
It is nowhere near as potent as meth or coke.
I mean who goes into their doctor requesting lipitor?
Folks who saw all the friggin' ads for Lipitor on TV.
This is a pretty bad argument to make. I've never heard of an illicit meth dealer that was following all of the best practices for the industry. I've yet to encounter one that was being inspected by the FDA as is the case.
Pharmaceutical corporations are necessary, unless you've got an alternate means of getting medication that they haven't produced at some point past or future. They also happen to develop nearly all the medications that are on the market.
Additionally, it's more than just product information, you've got no way of knowing what's actually in it, nobody has verified any of the batches, you don't have any sort of guidance, consequently it's significantly more dangerous, even if it's the same chemical.
Aren't most tweakers SKINNY and NOT Obese??
-Myke
Oh, I agree. You see, I'm not arguing so much against the need for pharmaceutical companies as for the need for pot farmers and dealers.
Unfortunately, as long as the former has so much power, the latter will always have to be on the margins of society, working in dangerous, sketchy circumstances. I don't believe our marijuana laws exist so much because of the puritanical nature of our politicians or citizens as because of the power of the pharma lobby and the power of the enormous companies that sell alcohol and tobacco. And no, this is not personal to me, because I'm not a pot smoker and haven't been for decades.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Melting point analysis is a fairly cheap and quick way to tell weather something is pure or not. A recrystallization or two can bring purity up to 98%. It's not the 99.99% racemic pure that the FDA demands, but you're not going to find any difference in biological activity after you account that some manufacturing processes don't produce a chirally pure result and one of the racemes of meth is less active than the other. Professional production with all the right tools is a good thing. Pharma is good, Big Pharma isn't, especially big politically connected pharma.
However most of those who pursue illegal drugs are so self-destructive that they don't care enough or don't have the means to do these simple tests and procedures to protect themselves against potential adulterants.
"Z-Pac" -- Azithromycin -- is already available in generic form and it's relatively cheap (especially since only five or six pills total are needed) and effective. As for cheap, I see it available online at six pills for $7.50 -- I'm not sure how reliable that is, as many online pill vendors are shady as prescriptions are required, but I do recall it being less than my $20 copay at Walgreens.
And at least around here, doctors are very scared of giving antibiotics for everything as it will help speed along the production of resistant strains. Instead, they'll test rather than give antibiotics up front. If you have a bacterial infection, they'll give you the antibiotics, but they like to test first -- even if the test costs $100 and the antibiotics $15 and they have almost no side-effects.
Erythromycin and Azithromycin (at least in a Z-pack -- no idea bout other delivery systems) seem to have similar costs.
I see it as a small bit of payback because of meth heads like him I can't buy a simple damned sudafed tablet anymore without a freaking act of congress, strip search, and a blood sample.
You know, one of the worst effects of the Marijuana prohibition has been that kids now days don't see a clear line between the light drugs and the hard ones. Just because Pot should be legal doesn't mean that Meth should. Its not even in the same universe of drugs.
Marijuana, Shrooms, Extacy(maybe), and a few others should probably be legal, but heroin, crack, meth, cocaine(sorry guys, its not a light drug), and anything else on that level should remain illegal.
You have to be pretty removed from reality to think that Meth should be a legal drug IMO.
How big of an issue does it need to be to be considered a big enough problem?
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Prison_rape_in_the_United_States
The way a society treats its least powerful and valued members, its enemies, and its critics is a measure of that society's strength and fitness. Unfortunately while "western" nations might score better on this type of scale than many other nations, we still have a lot of room for improvement.
meth is technically more legal than any of your ought-to-be-legal examples above; it's schedule II since it's approved for treating ADHD (!!) and morbid exogenous obesity. of course it's probably almost impossible to get a prescription for it; i'm sure no doctor wants to risk their license in actually doing so.
it's a little weird that DEA hasn't moved meth to schedule I given all the real damage it causes; a case could be made that marijuana and MDMA have more medicinal use than meth, and DEA seems totally unmoved by that. maybe it's just inertia.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Why do it's enemies matter?
And these people are treated badly because they are criminals, not because they are the least powerful or least valued.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
And the main goal of the dealer is to get the buyer hooked.
And they are always hanging around in parks right near primary schools. Often they put Heroin in Sherbet Fountains and show the kiddies how to sharpen the licorice sticks using Sponge Bob's a druggie pencil sharpeners. No one forces anyone to smoke, sniff, and/or inject anything. The drug user makes a concious decision to put whatever substance they want into their body. No one is forcing them to do it. A drug dealer meets a demand just like a prohibition era alcohol salesman's goal was to get the buyer hooked. Or, is that argument not applicable here as alcohol prohibition was silly and drugs are evil?
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
The woosh here was my coffee onto the keyboard
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
"When people say meth they mean something that's cooked up by somebody without any quality controls and it's really not the same thing as the chemical equivalent produced by pharmaceutical corporations."
Actually, that isn't quite true. In the raw base form, it's exactly the same quality as pharm company-produced methamphetamine. This is what street users typically use. Without a proper amount of quality control, you have an EXPLOSION, pure and simple, there is either a proper reaction and formation, or you screw up, have too much water in the mix, and you go KABOOM from hydrogen exploding due to the lithium reacting with the water. Yes, I have made and used the stuff, not proud of it, but at least I learned something from it. Wanna see the track marks from hot boosting? I have pictures.
What happens afterwards is the pharm company modifying it into a hydrochloric salt, and that makes it entirely different from what street users obtain.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yes, and when the goverment proves that he actually is a drug dealer *then* they can forfeit property as part of damages (punititive or otherwise), before the trial they can freeze the assets (not forfeit, *freeze* a *huge* difference) to avoid the property from "getting lost" (this is also a bit tricky, a person should be able to defend themselves but if all their assets are totally frozen how to do that ? [IMO using frozen property to fund defense should be allowed])
I'm sorry to tell you this, but some drug dealers are a bit smarter when it comes to creating a market than that. When you've got guys who go round housing estates with high unemployment, befriending people, offering them a couple of free hits, then coming back the next day and charging them some small amount, then the day after, charging a bit more etc. until they're at full price and coming back for more (sitting around watching Jeremy Kyle/Oprah/Whatever? Getting high is probably quite an easy thing to get into when you've got nothing better to do).
Look at how the crack epidemic started in the US: It was given away, couple of rocks at a time, to heroin addicts to help with the comedown. The dealers knew then, as they do now, that they stand to make a lot more money selling crack than heroin, and they created the market intentionally
I'm of the belief that drug use should be seen as a medical, not criminal problem. That drugs should be manufactured, prescribed, monitored and controlled. There will still be people whose lives get ruined, there will still be addicts, but I think the overall cost to society will be lesser than if we continue down the incredibly expensive and ineffective path we are on. That's the only way I can see to have a system that doesn't 'push' drugs. To suggest that drug dealers play a completely passive role in selling their product at the moment is naive at best.
Because you have a justice system that sets the punishments for criminal actions. If being raped in prison is to be part of the punishment then the judge should state the number of times during sentencing.
Why not just use the death penalty for every crime? Cheaper than imprisoning people, zero re-offending rate, what's the catch?
I highly doubt that. Both the pharma & tobacco industries would be very happy to sell pot if it were legal. They don't need to fear competition and lobby against it, they would be the purveyors ; there'd be no competition.
I didn't say "fear". They don't "fear" competition, they covet it.
And now is pharma going to sell pot if it can't be patented? And I believe that if the tobacco industry started selling pot it would the their end, but my argument about that is too long to go into here.
I believe that if anyone took over the pot industry, it would be the beverage companies, which aren't a whole lot better than the other two I named, though not quite as historically evil.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You can not, possibly, be serious. Have you not followed anything about the pharmaceutical industry/health care industry connection in the past thirty years? "They give you the drugs you need."
I'm not saying that doctors are evil in their prescribing, they're just being lazy and paying too much attention to that hot pharmaceutical rep who flirted with him at the "conference" in Hawaii last month. And take a guess at the effectiveness of the average prescribed drug. Then go ahead and check it out. I'll wait here to help you pick your jaw off the floor when you find out just how ineffective most drugs are compared to no drugs and how often they're actually more dangerous than not taking them for the patient. When you find out what the "price/performance" ratio really is.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why do it's enemies matter?
Because they are a useful metric. The lowest level or respect a society shows for anyone, in my opinion, can be a good measure of how just, honorable, fair, etc. that society is overall. You don't get many "points" for treating your kings well - everyone does that. Treating your enemies well takes some serious effort.
And these people are treated badly because they are criminals, not because they are the least powerful or least valued.
Criminals, in general, are not valued highly by a society. In some sense, they are "enemies" of the society. I think it degrades us all when we treat them as less than human, even (or especially) if we feel that they have behaved in a less-than-human manner. Fortunately back in 1948 we all agreed to the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights", so these types of abuse are purely theoretical at this point, no?
Article 5 - No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
As an aside, I heard an interview with a military doctor serving in Afghanistan who spoke about their policy of treating the wounded of the enemy Taliban. He said that personally he would be more than happy to leave them dying on the field, but that he recognized the tremendous PR value of actually fixing them up. He claimed that the Taliban were actually leaving their wounded by the side of the road on occasion because they realized they would get better treatment than could be offered by their own side. The doctor wondered how long the Taliban could maintain the idea that the west were a bunch of evil devils while implicitly stating that they gave their enemies as good treatment as they did their allies.
You have it backwards heroin is used for the crack crash and not the other way around. Anyone who claims to have an opiate addiction that uses crack to deal with withdrawal doesn't have a habit and is kidding themself. You are aware that there is no crash after using heroin right? Unless you have a habit and then it is called withdrawal which isn't any form of crash and is only made to feel a hundred times worse by the use of any stimulant. You are aware that physically addicted opiate users consider meth/crack to be 'a shot of hanging out'(unless it is being used at the same time as an opiate high then it is a different kettle of fish) and call it such. As for dealers befriending the unemployed to get them hooked do you have any idea how long it takes to make a real habit? and how little money the unemployed actually have? They don't need to manufacture addicts to be in business as there are plenty of self made addicts to go around. Getting a physical addiction to any drug actually takes quite a bit of work and no dealer would be bothered spending hundreds/thousands of dollars and weeks/months of their time creating business when there are so many walk up customers to service.
The only thing you got right is that it should be treated as a medical problem and not criminal. We have common ground there. I speak from over thirty years experience with drug addicts and assure you any naivety about the role of the dealer is coming from your side of the aisle and not mine.
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
I agree with Seumas, enjoyed reading your comment ! http://www.bbcleaningservice.com/
http://bbcleaningservice.com/
There is no protection against stupidity - death by meth or alcohol - what's the difference?
Lack of means is a valid argument - but that is brought on by the establishment, and not characteristic of homebrew drugs, in, and of themselves.
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
I disagreed with the statement about the fitness measure for a society. I also disagree with allowing prison rape to continue.
For one, you don't want to encourage kidnappers, armed robbers, etc to commit murder. So you do need something worse. Secondly, it's not cheaper. But third, I never said that they weren't deserving of some rights. I think if we can rehabilitate them, bully for society. I'd like that. I just see how society treats children born into poverty by providing them the means and encouragement to become middle-class+ to be a good measure of society, and how society treats criminals by rehabilitating and deterring future crimes to be a good measure of society. So if electroshock is the best way to accomplish both of those goals (without encouraging more witness killing), then great.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Usually its people with drug addictions selling comic books to get more drugs, this guy is fueling his comic book addiction by selling drugs to get more comic books.....I find it refreshing.
"What this country needs now is a drink." -FDR
*whoosh*
Notice that word need was in quotes?