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Sniffing Out Billions In US Currency Smuggled Across the Border To Mexico
An anonymous reader writes "Criminals smuggle an estimated $30 billion in U.S. currency into Mexico each year from the United States, most of it laundered drug money. But researchers say help is on the way for border guards in the form of a portable device that identifies specific vapors given off by U.S. paper money. "We're developing a device that mimics the function of trained dogs 'sniffing' out concealed money, but without the drawbacks, such as expensive training, sophisticated operators, down time and communication limitations," says Suiqiong Li, Ph.D., a member of the research team behind the technology. When developing the device, the researchers first had to figure out which gases money emits and how fast that happens. It turned out that the gases are a set of trace chemicals, including aldehydes, furans and organic acids." What do bitcoins smell like?
Smells like... Victory
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
They smell like burned fuel.
Despair, irony, and a touch of vermouth.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
We already know the CIA is very much involved in the Mexican drug trade, and I don't mean in the trying-to-stop-it department. Are those billions still going to be allowed to pass through?
Ah, who am I kidding. Of course they are. Because corrupt government has decided that it can do as it pleases.
... the traces of cocaine that can be found on every single U.S. treasury note.
https://www.google.com/search?&q=banks+helping+drug+cartels
Armed with better detectors, border guards will demand a bigger cut from money launderers.
There are many published references to the fact that most US $20 bills have traces of cocaine on them... http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH... So why don't they just use cocaine sniffing dogs (of which, I am sure, they have plenty)?
Neck beard and a superiority complex
I only switched to carrying sacks of bills across the border in the dead of night because dealing with those assholes at HSBC when I needed money laundered was too much trouble. I'll be seriously upset if enhanced security means I have to re-open my account with them. They wouldn't even upgrade me to Narcoterrorist Platinum Checking unless I provided proof of having ordered at least 50 grisly killings personally, or qualified for MegaMule Rewards by transporting more than a metric ton of high quality cocaine per quarter...
Ozone.
Bravo, the daily bitcoin quota met at /.
Seems an easy thing to avoid, if it depends on trace gases.
Problem here is they are not looking for anything that is evidence of a crime. It is legal to carry money over the border up to a certain amount so, the smell of money doesn't actually indicate any crime, and isn't evidence of any crime.
Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to justify expenditures on cool new technology which will be quickly mothballed after its found to be useless or ruled by the courts to not be justification for extra scrutiny.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
The result of the puritanical and hypocritical war on drugs has been countless lives lost, Billions and Billions spent on fruitless efforts and a strengthening of criminal gangs and terrorist groups which aren't shy about using thuggery and corrupting law enforcement and the government in order to make money. People suffer and as long as nobody is committing fraud in what they are selling, then people should be able to buy whatever rat poison they want and do with it what they want. People have a right to their own bodies. When drug use gets out of hand then civil commitment and medical care are what is needed, not police, courts and jails.
I guess they will have to start using a different detergent in their money laundry.
There is not a lot of problems associated with drug money going to the Mexico.
30 billion a year going into the hands of violent drug cartels isn't a problem? I disagree.
On the other hand, waves of unskilled, poor, desperate people and who can't legally work here is a recipe for social problems that will last generations.
Are you American Indian? If not, from which wave of poor desperate immigrants did your family arrive?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Bitcoin non olet.
No! Gases are chemicals! Who knew!
Citizen! You set of the money detector. I need to see your papers. And your money.
Perhaps he learned from the Indian experience and doesn't want to repeat that. Immigration can be a net win (skilled labor) or a net loss (unskilled labor), it's all in how you play the game. Unfortunately as the US tries its level best to self destruct we have chosen the worst of all worlds by allowing in *huge* amounts of unskilled while only keeping the skilled labor long enough to train them and send them back.
News at 11.
I'm far more concerned, whether the smell of my honestly-earned money is any different from that of the laundered drug proceeds. I suspect, the smell is exactly the same and, should I ever choose to cross the border with substantial cash, these devices will point me out. A major loophole in American (and English) legal system, allows seizure of "suspect" assets even if the person himself can not be arrested.
Now, why would an honest citizen need to carry his cash with him?.. Oh, well...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Hook up the Food Saver or VacuVita to a bag full of stacked, tied bills. Then put the whole vacuum-packed, heat-sealed bag into your suitcase lining, hidden compartment, or money belt.
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Since most American paper currency has trace amounts of Cocaine on it anyways, wouldn't it be easier to just devise a cocaine detector to track the money that way?
I think that 30 billion could be funneled into anything more appropriate.. like our debt..instead of funding criminals
I bet these rank amateurs don't shrink-wrap bales of hundreds onto pallets that then disappear as morning fog, like Bush / Cheney did.
Everyone knows that Bitcoins were invented by the government to get people to spend their computing power decoding the 8th chevron on the stargate.
I'm predicting a run on vacuum sealers.
Stop exposing that the CIA runs the entire drug trade to fund deep black underground projects.
Oh, wait.
Just put those sniffers in every HSBC branch. Or better yet, put those sniffers in the HSBC corporate boardroom. The "money laundering" they want to stop is happening at the upper levels of management, and yet, not a single banker will *ever* go to jail for laundering.
Instead, the bank will pay some measly fine which won't even be 10% of what they made doing the crime. Crime absolutely pays and pays big, assuming you're already a multi-billion-dollar corporation that can buy politicians, buy law enforcement, and has "closely held religious beliefs" about flagrantly ignoring law and morals.
How much taxpayer money is wasted going after clueless individuals? All they are going to stop are the mules. The real criminals sit in luxurious office suites and shuffle billions of dollars around with a few keystrokes.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The ADE 651 is a fake bomb detector[1] produced by ATSC (UK), which claimed that the device could effectively and accurately, from long range, detect the presence and location of various types of explosives, drugs, ivory, and other substances. The device has been sold to 20 countries in the Middle East and Far East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, for as much as $60,000 per unit. The Iraqi government is said to have spent £52 million ($85 million) on the devices.
ADE_651
This initiative is sponsored by large US banks. They don't want the competition from foreign banks to have billions in drug money deposits. I wish US companies would repatriate their profits the way drug cartels do. Even though no taxes are paid, at least the money would be spent here.
Hope is the currency of fools
But, I don't think this will happen as a billions of dollars of industry, on both sides of the law, has been built. You have the drug cartels used to the market price and then you have the DEA, etc. who are used to the funding provided by the USG. You legalize the drugs and *POOF* goes the market value of the drugs and the funding to the DEA and all the companies that are fed off via contracts. The majority of the money is now going to the local and state governments in the form of taxes like with cigarettes and alcohol.
On the other hand, millions of American's are impacted by illegal immigration. From honest business owners who compete with businesses that hire illegal labor, to underfunded schools and social services, and of course the victims of crimes committed by the undocumented -- from hit and run, drunk driving accidents, to rape and strong armed robbery and petty thievery.
We have laws on the books that were not here when my ancestors came to America. America still has more legal immigration than all other countries combined.
A country without laws, borders, or a common language is doomed to fail.
The real solution, of course, is to legalize marijuana nationally, thus drying up demand for the cartels main cash crop.
But oh, we can't do that, because it would put so many DEA agents and overpaid government contractors out of work!
So, they come up with not-even-half-assed solutions that sound good in a press release, and end up being nothing more than yet another tool of citizen subjugation over the long run.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
but maybe it's just me.
Have gnu, will travel.
Why do you think that unskilled labor is a net loss? America was largely built on the cheap labor of immigrants who eventually became part of the culture.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
The can sniff out $41,000 in grandma's bra but they can't find pallets of cash going across the border.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Step 1. Buy Money Sniffer and position near highway.
Step 2. Advertise free "crossing guaranteed" inspections.
Step 3. Distract driver with free WiFi and coffee while source of odor is removed.
Step 4. Profit!
Is that in addition to the 20+ billion in remittance sent over from the US to Mexico??
http://www.thesocialcontract.c...
Life is not for the lazy.
Decriminalization isn't good enough; legalize them.
No seriously.
Put it in the washer with some fabric softener and tide.
BOOM. Countermeasures.
Do Euros smell the same as USD?
This is really just going one place and that is increasing the already billions taken by police legally everyday here inside the US. It's called civil forfeiture and it is big business for LE. This technology will just make it easier for them to find the cars with cash in them.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime/
If you did that, where would the NSA get their secret funding, and how much more would we need to increase various enforcement budgets that are largely financed by seized assets?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
The drug cartels started using prepaid cards that you can put $10,000 on. A wallet can hold $100,000 and not draw any attention.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
I think a nation should decide if it's in their people's best interest to import unskilled labor. In the current economy with only 63% of current citizens working there is not need for more unskilled labor. Back when the US had an open immigration policy there was a need for labor that is not the case now. Increasing the number of unskilled labor immigrants will only drive wages down further for current Americans. Minimum wages laws would not need to exist if the labor market was not flooded with unskilled labor.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
They find where the money is, then take it either through asset forfeiture or parallel construction.
well, your fellow citizens decided that they would rather buy $30+ billion in illegal drugs than do something productive. The cartels wouldn't exist if the fuckwits didn't buy the product. Legalizing marijuana isn't going to make a dent. One would have to legalize everything and that's not going to happen.
And larceny! Success and larceny. The whiff of ill-gotten gains haunts all money. Gamblers understand this, whatever their other failings might be.
Just employ strippers as border patrol agents. They have an uncanny ability to sniff out money. They might even get the smugglers to voluntarily turn over some of it.
So enlighten us you, you you 'Anonymous Coward' Is it Tis or its' ?
If it smells like Tide and fabric softener, it must be laundered money.
I prefer Euros anyway....
You know, dogs can also be trained t osniff for money. They use them around here. Every time the police raids some drug gang place or some white collar criminal they suspect might have cash hidden they bring in the money dogs. The dogs are very good at it.
Joe Biden is a square shooter. Joe Biden for 2016!
... there are no U.S. paper money!
I haven't been impacted by illegal drug lords in Mexico, either here in the states or while traveling in Mexico. I have been impacted by getting stopped by the border patrol and their sniffing dogs. Sounds like money going to Mexican drug lords is a Mexican problem.
I guess you haven't figured out that a nation run by large violent drug cartels and a wave of immigration from that nation might be related. If you want to stop the poor immigrants from washing into our country (mind you, I'm not convinced that's a problem), then work to make Mexico less of a failed state, and that has to involve working against the drug cartels.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
US regime has been EXPORTING its inflation to rest of the world since 1971 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
Casteism
End the drug war and the problem of laundered money disappears tomorrow.
Typical response by an uneducated person, you can't dispute my point so you attack my grammar (it's = it is & its = possessive it). If you're going to attack someone's grammar make sure you have it correct otherwise you look like a fool.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
From a resources taken vs resources generated unskilled labor is always a minus for the community. Perhaps a plus to unscrupulous employers but a minus to the community. This is a case of privatize the gains but socialize the loss, it's just one example where the traditional roles are reversed between the parties.
And interesting specific yet easy to detect substances
could be added to money to make it easy to track from
one place to another. Each of the 12 reserve banks could
use a unique easy to detect substance....
One step beyond serial number records... and one step
beyond ultraviolet and edge stack marks.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.