Venezuela Shipping

Yes J, that is what I have always believed also. There is a system of cut-outs for those involved in delivery that insulates the production cartels. You never put the cartel people in the same place as the drugs. But you do put them with the money. This looks like a ship transfer - the drugs go in the water in one place from one boat and the money goes in the water in another place from another boat, or from a plane. The mules are very often operating under duress - mariners on transports with kidnapped family, etc. But at some point, you gotta send cartel people out to get the cash. I think that's what we are seeing with these strikes - the people and money getting blown up. Hopefully, without any mariners families getting killed as a result.

 

Utter nonsense. This is all to make Maduro exit. They are killing anyone they feel like to make the cartels and Maduro worry. That means some mules got whacked; totally unneeded. And a planing craft with 11 people ain’t running drugs and people. It is a cover story. They could have been some of Maduro’s pals or human smuggling.

The only good news is the clown show ain’t following Putin this time. They seem like they want to get rid of a dictator..

 

There is no evidence. They were blown up and sunk, if there was any. This is old school Georgia justice. The Law, internationally and nationally, has its foundations in "innocent until proven guilty". There is no evidence of anyone being guilty.

 

Correct. It is a basic USA operation to make some cartel operatives nervous at the expense of some guy trying to feed his children. Shameful at best, criminal almost certainly.

For me, I want to fish in international waters off Texas with my child. What stops the US government from killing us and claiming I was running drugs in my fancy boat?

 

Used to be about half of fishing off Florida was for "square grouper".

 

What stops Maduro's goons from kidnapping your kids and coercing you to run drugs back into Texas? By denying them commercial aircraft and commercial shipping, Venezuela becomes not much good to China and Iran and others actively trying to destabilize the US. With more than 20,000 dead in Venezuela at Maduro's hands, this probably isn't going to be the sort of US boondoggle that you can gloss over. It's going to be very messy somewhere, but hopefully, not Texas.

 

How does it help by doing the same?

 

A reasonable question that I don't have the answer to. But it may not be doing the same.

Maduro's problem right now is the fact that there aren't a lot of people having a hard time with that question. He's made it all to easy to imagine there is justification, and that the end will be worth the means.

 

Apparently he has made Americans believe the method is justified.

 

I don't think the majority of USA voters would approve of the methods; sparsness of outrage expression on the methods used does not Translate to approval.
Probably the most productive way to do drug Intervention at sea, (which has been used for years) is to use a sharpshooter to to knock out all engines, with the shooter stationed on a helicopter platform. That method allows for Salvage with dollars going back to USA Treasury, less pollution, and interrogation of occupants. Interrogation can lead to arrest of powerful, possibly politically protected (um pardoned) dealers on homeland soil.
What a waste of money involved in restationing a fleet, and using costly missiles by a supposedly fiscally conservative Administration, while using clearly morally repugnant and clearly illegal methods!

 

All optics trying to get Maduro to exit without him getting himself and thousands more killed.

But as a boater, not a fan of the methods.

 

Ultimately, it is an American social issue. Americans want to buy drugs, so someone will provide them. That is the escence of a free market. Prohibition has only created a black market and caused more problems than it fixed. When Prohibition was first enacted, the Attorney General told Congress it should got to the Surgeon General because it was a medical and not a police matter.

 

Drugs- it has always been that way, and always will be would be my guess. The powers that be, can sometimes make it better or worse, or it can be out of their control or interest. Obviously, it can be a point of leverage, as can a number of other things. Especially when powers that be are desperate to distract, subdue, or have their own personal agenda, separate from what the voters want. But I digress from the boat designs, sometimes clever, interesting, or unique, that are used in such transport.

 

The drug smuggling trade and the moonshine trade gave us fast boats and cars.

 

Drugs have zero to do with these killings.