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Drug-Shooting 'Bazooka' Seized In Mexico As Smugglers Aim Skyward
As Mexican authorities continue to crack down on drug smugglers, criminals continue to aim high in a bid to evade them. Last week, Mexican authorities seized a jury-rigged bazooka and nearly one ton of marijuana in the border town of Agua Prieta in Sonora state, the Mexican Attorney General said in a statement.
The bazooka had been "adapted" to use a compressor for launching drugs into the United States. The Mexican daily El Universal reports the device was inside a van with a sliding roof, allowing the bazooka to shoot the drugs from the cover of the vehicle.
Agua Prieta lies directly across the border from Douglas, Ariz. Last year, Mexican federal authorities found yet another "homemade bazooka" in the town, this one measuring nearly 10 feet long, alongside an air compressor inside a modified panel van with no license plate. Officials say it was apparently used for launching projectiles, possibly drugs, across the border.
If "legal" retail prices for cannabis drop, maybe these will be packed with heroin or cocaine instead.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday November 16 2017, @03:59AM (6 children)
How about just legalize drugs, localize production (more jobs), and impose local/state taxes (more services). Doesn't cost anything really, but walls take costly materials, endanger wildlife, and will ultimately be undermined, gone around, or gone over.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @04:11AM
Get outta here! Fuck your common sense you goddamn communist!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @04:35AM (3 children)
You're making way too much sense, dude.
...and let's remember that Prohibition in the 1920s was a major inflection point for Organized Crime.
When you make something illegal, you lose control of it.
Ask a teenager: "Which is easier to get, dope or booze?"
"Dope, dude; they ask for ID for booze."
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @05:02AM (2 children)
I keep hearing this and I don't believe it.
Teens who know even the most square 21 year old can ask that 21 year old to go into a liquor or grocery store and buy them some alcohol.
Someone has to be cool enough to know a drug dealer that can get them weed in states where it is still illegal. The liquor store clerk won't rob you, turn out to be an undercover cop, or ask to hang out later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @05:57AM
You're reminding me of a great scene with Terry the Toad in "American Graffiti". [google.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QROsCcpd1E#eow-title [youtube.com]
I sometimes wonder if the decision that I made a decade ago to stop consuming fiction was the correct one.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @11:54PM
Yes teens can and do acquire alcohol that way, but it turns out that by and large most people will not do that or it will cost the teens more than they care to pay the mule. Higher cost, requirement of finding someone willing to break the law, generally turns out its hard to do. Also, most people turn to family / friends which immediately makes it more likely that their parents will find out thus increasing the shame factor.
Buying weed does not require being "cool enough", apparently you just never tried hard enough or you're operating from an ignorant perspective. I find the latter the most likely. If you ask around you will pretty quickly find someone to point you in the right direction, because it turns out those dealers are doing it to make MONEY not FRIENDS.
So believe it, legalizing weed does not increase teen use. In fact it is likely to discourage teen use, who wants to illegally supply some teenager to sell at a school when there are perfectly legal outlets to sell from? Who wants to face possible jail time? Legalization is better all around, just gotta finish convincing the puritans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @06:16AM
We could, perhaps, legalize drugs. I sure wish precursors like iodine weren't restricted!
The wall is cheap. We could build a new one every year and still spend less than we do dealing with the illegals. We've built interstate highways; they take far more space and materials and are much more harmful to wildlife.
The lock on your door can be broken or picked, or even bypassed via a broken window, so why bother? It slows the foes, so we aren't so overwhelmed trying to catch them.