Colombia hands 'drug lord' to US

vbimport
#1

Colombia has extradited Diego Montoya, alleged to be one of the country’s most powerful drug lords, to the US to face trial for murder and drug trafficking.

The charges relate to Mr Montoya’s time as leader of the Norte del Valle cartel which, at its peak, reportedly exported 70% of cocaine sold in the US and EU.

Known as Don Diego, he ran a private army accused of 1,500 murders.

At the time of his 2007 arrest by the Colombian military, he was on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” list.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7780895.stm

I’m sure the U.S. government will be very happy to send him to prison for quite some time…

#2

Well if they did a better job of protecting our borders the drugs would not get here.

#3

Really? They’ll always be able to smuggle drugs into the country, regardless of how well we protect our borders. (That i=n no way means I think we should stop trying to protect our borders.)

#4

I agree. Illegal immigration of people and importing of illegal goods can’t be stopped through border enforcement. If we did then I don’t think I would like the resulting restrictions on society and our lifestyles. It is one thing to build a fence along the Mexican border but we have too much shoreline to think we can stop it all to any extent. Especially the smuggling of drugs which can also use small and/or private airports.

If we really wanted to stop illegal immigration we could do it easily. The trick is to eliminate the jobs by $hit hammering any employer caught using undocumented workers. Make it so painful financially, and add in some jail time for those responsible for hiring them, and they won’t take the risk. If the illegal immigrants can’t find employment they won’t be here long. Then make it easier for them to obtain temporary work visas and there wouldn’t be many undocumented people in this country and the ones here would leave fast. In fact we can see the result that the higher unemployment rates have had on this problem by removing job opportunities for illegals. It has greatly reduced the number of illegal immigrants and many have returned home as a result. It is the same for drugs. If we want to stop the import of them then stop the demand.

#5

[QUOTE=UTR;2175493]If we really wanted to stop illegal immigration we could do it easily. The trick is to eliminate the jobs by $hit hammering any employer caught using undocumented workers. Make it so painful financially, and add in some jail time for those responsible for hiring them, and they won’t take the risk. If the illegal immigrants can’t find employment they won’t be here long. Then make it easier for them to obtain temporary work visas and there wouldn’t be many undocumented people in this country and the ones here would leave fast. In fact we can see the result that the higher unemployment rates have had on this problem by removing job opportunities for illegals. It has greatly reduced the number of illegal immigrants and many have returned home as a result. It is the same for drugs. If we want to stop the import of them then stop the demand.[/QUOTE] That wouldn’t work as well, IMO. There is a misconception that only small mom and pop places hire illegals, while in reality the problem is much more serious than that.

There are larger biotech companies who use third-party contractors who knowingly hire illegals for maintenance jobs. There is no way the government is going to go and try and crack down on large companies like that any time soon.

I actually knew a few illegals who were making $20+ per hour! :o

It’s definitely a very complicated issue that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.