DEA Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

[QuestionAuthority]

Think about what would happen if the war on drugs ended.. They would have to close down 95 percent of the prisons. They would have to lay off tens of thousands of DEA and other Federal agents. Its too big of a money maker for the government. But maybe they will just start their own silk road and start another revenue stream, lol...

This is why we will never see the end of the war on drugs. I wonder how many people would be out of work? it would start from federal agents, down to all the subcontractors, so im sure the number is huge. But, they can then switch their attention to drug prevention, and rehab. I believe the stats of portugal prove that decriminalizing drugs works, but they dont want us to know. They dont have to make illegal drugs legal, just decriminalize them. its a multibillion dollar a year business for the government. So of course they are against it. Who wants to get rid of their own  job, lol!...

Ill have to look up the exact numbers on how much the government spends on this war on drugs, im sure the numbers will be impressive..

That's is not a stupid idea!

Legal marijuana was a $700 million dollar industry in Colorado last year, according to a Washington Post analysis of recently-released tax data from the state's Department of Revenue. In 2014, Colorado retailers sold $386 million of medical marijuana and $313 million for purely recreational purposes. The two segments of the market generated $63 million in tax revenue, with an additional $13 million collected in licenses and fees.

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

Think about what would happen if the war on drugs ended.. They would have to close down 95 percent of the prisons. They would have to lay off tens of thousands of DEA and other Federal agents. Its too big of a money maker for the government. But maybe they will just start their own silk road and start another revenue stream, lol...

This is why we will never see the end of the war on drugs. I wonder how many people would be out of work? it would start from federal agents, down to all the subcontractors, so im sure the number is huge. But, they can then switch their attention to drug prevention, and rehab. I believe the stats of portugal prove that decriminalizing drugs works, but they dont want us to know. They dont have to make illegal drugs legal, just decriminalize them. its a multibillion dollar a year business for the government. So of course they are against it. Who wants to get rid of their own  job, lol!...

Ill have to look up the exact numbers on how much the government spends on this war on drugs, im sure the numbers will be impressive..

One of the other bonuses that the state gets from these 'wars' is the resultant fear in the populace as a whole. Going all the way back to Machiavelli, who coined the phrase "Its better for a state [prince] to be feared than to be loved", you can control a population easily through fear (they don't have to be afraid of you per se, you just need to engender that fear in a general way) A great way to maintian this fear is to point to crime statistics, and create new targets, like "The War On Terror"  (double points for that!! )

By keeping people in a constant, senseless state of fear, civil liberties can be eroded and the power of the state extended into areas of life where it has no right.

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

That's is not a stupid idea!

Legal marijuana was a $700 million dollar industry in Colorado last year, according to a Washington Post analysis of recently-released tax data from the state's Department of Revenue. In 2014, Colorado retailers sold $386 million of medical marijuana and $313 million for purely recreational purposes. The two segments of the market generated $63 million in tax revenue, with an additional $13 million collected in licenses and fees.

Great example! where did you get that from?

Another example is Portugal. While they haven't decriminalised the drugs, they have decriminalised the users (who are in many ways victims). This change of approach has had some huge improvements for them: Der Spiegel - Portugal after 12 years...

[bryant.coleman]

No, I get the privatized prison system, but what I'm not buying is your conspiracy theory that they're creating crime scenes merely to fill prisons when crime rate drops. That's just something you made up. There will never be a shortage of poor people they can lock up for minor crimes.

I think what he is trying to say is that what constitutes a criminal offence can be dictated by the state. Trivial offences can be criminalised, this attracting jailtime. So, in a society where there is a gradual decrease in serious crimes against the person or property, the existing framework of Law Enforcement can be kept productive. The last thing a state wants is a well trained and equipped force returned to civilian life.

"creating crime scenes"  - look at he Silk Road case. If you take the DEA out of this case, how serious is it? A website for guys selling a bit of weed and head stuff? Guys been doing that in Europe out of the Netherlands for years. Enter the DEA - and now you have have "nob" (DEA thief) trying to move 1 KILO of coke ( even the SR regulars reckoned this was suspicious and probably LE), funds being STOLEN (by DEA guy), innocent staff being framed by DEA for theft, hitmen being offered (by DEA) -etc.  Things seemed to go to sh*t once the DEA was involved.

Have a look the evidence. All the really bad stuff had the DEA involved everytime.

"creating crime scenes" ??  Maybe not such a far fetched idea after all.  

This is exactly what I was referring to. Many thanks for your post. It is well known that a large part of the petty crimes are framed by the cops themselves. The big question is why they are doing it. IMO, they are doing it for their own benefit.

[Bagatell]

IMO, they are doing it for their own benefit.

They call it "civil asset forfeiture".

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

 The big question is why they are doing it. IMO, they are doing it for their own benefit.

And if anyone questions that assertion, you simply respond - "Civil Asset Forfeiture",  a $2.7bn bussiness  

(Assets forfeited are used by the agencies that collect it, split amicably with the feds)

Edit: @Bagatell    great minds, eh?

[duckydonald]

you guys seems to fail to see that Mark kapeles is DPR cause he ran and gave the bitcoins to the government.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_A6UVqeBGI&feature=youtu.be

[Stifler]

you guys seems to fail to see that Mark kapeles is DPR cause he ran and gave the bitcoins to the government.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_A6UVqeBGI&feature=youtu.be

The only evidence I've seen that Karpales is DPR is after the real DPR tried rather pathetically shifting the blame on to him.

[duckydonald]

you guys seems to fail to see that Mark kapeles is DPR cause he ran and gave the bitcoins to the government.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_A6UVqeBGI&feature=youtu.be

The only evidence I've seen that Karpales is DPR is after the real DPR tried rather pathetically shifting the blame on to him.

Yeah I guess Mark had no reason to hand over the MTGOX bitcoins to the government, did you already forgot about the corruption?  

I dont see him in prison and bet you if Ross was in Japan they would have still put the blame on him.

[bryant.coleman]

Yeah I guess Mark had no reason to hand over the MTGOX bitcoins to the government, did you already forgot about the corruption?  

I dont see him in prison and bet you if Ross was in Japan they would have still put the blame on him.

Mark Karpeles is the guy who single-handedly destroyed the reputation of Bitcoin. The negativity which Bitcoin received after the Mt Gox scandal is going to stay for many years to come. Also, Karpeles destroyed the life savings of tens of thousands of people, some of who were among the earliest adapters of Bitcoin.

So in short, Karpeles is the no.1 enemy of Bitcoin, which makes him a friend of the bankers and oligarchs.

[bigasic]

Yeah I guess Mark had no reason to hand over the MTGOX bitcoins to the government, did you already forgot about the corruption?  

I dont see him in prison and bet you if Ross was in Japan they would have still put the blame on him.

Mark Karpeles is the guy who single-handedly destroyed the reputation of Bitcoin. The negativity which Bitcoin received after the Mt Gox scandal is going to stay for many years to come. Also, Karpeles destroyed the life savings of tens of thousands of people, some of who were among the earliest adapters of Bitcoin.

So in short, Karpeles is the no.1 enemy of Bitcoin, which makes him a friend of the bankers and oligarchs.

Ive been trying to educate people on bitcoin since I knew about bitcoin. I explained to my uncle, who is an attorney, and when we talked 6 months or so ago, the only thing he can remember about bitcoin is the mtgox scam. So, it totally turned him off to bitcoin. Im sure it turned millions off as well. Those that  understand it, are used to the scams, unfortunately. but bitcoin is going to be hard to go mainstream with so much bad publicity. plus the mt gox deal wasnt small, hundreds of millions are missing...I feel bad for those that lost money on mtgox, but I saw the writing on the wall way before they went under and was lucky to get all my coins off it. I dont understand why so many people didnt see the signs?

[bryant.coleman]

I've been trying to educate people on bitcoin since I knew about bitcoin. I explained to my uncle, who is an attorney, and when we talked 6 months or so ago, the only thing he can remember about bitcoin is the mtgox scam. So, it totally turned him off to bitcoin. Im sure it turned millions off as well. Those that  understand it, are used to the scams, unfortunately. but bitcoin is going to be hard to go mainstream with so much bad publicity. plus the mt gox deal wasnt small, hundreds of millions are missing...I feel bad for those that lost money on mtgox, but I saw the writing on the wall way before they went under and was lucky to get all my coins off it. I dont understand why so many people didnt see the signs?

A total of BTC850,000 and tens of millions of USD in cash was stolen from Mt Gox. But I disagree with you about the warning signals. There were no warnings of any type. Else, most of the users could have withdrawn their coins.

[duckydonald]

Both of you are right, but if you had paid attention to what Mark did, Im sure the coins went to the government.
Mark is Def favorite for the GOV.  Let them rejoice cause now is our jobs to teach btc to the future generations, forget most of the old timers.  Is the new gen we have to push btc too.  They are going to be the programmers and developers of the future.  They hold the power to rid of gov corruption

[mitus-2]

you guys seems to fail to see that Mark kapeles is DPR cause he ran and gave the bitcoins to the government.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_A6UVqeBGI&feature=youtu.be

your assumption implies that the US gov was willing to be corrupted, accepting coins not beloging to Karpeles, for not imprisonating him for being DPR?
fascinating

[duckydonald]

you guys seems to fail to see that Mark kapeles is DPR cause he ran and gave the bitcoins to the government.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_A6UVqeBGI&feature=youtu.be

your assumption implies that the US gov was willing to be corrupted, accepting coins not beloging to Karpeles, for not imprisonating him for being DPR?
fascinating

\

Think of it as a bail out for Mark K

[coinpr0n]

I've been trying to educate people on bitcoin since I knew about bitcoin. I explained to my uncle, who is an attorney, and when we talked 6 months or so ago, the only thing he can remember about bitcoin is the mtgox scam. So, it totally turned him off to bitcoin. Im sure it turned millions off as well. Those that  understand it, are used to the scams, unfortunately. but bitcoin is going to be hard to go mainstream with so much bad publicity. plus the mt gox deal wasnt small, hundreds of millions are missing...I feel bad for those that lost money on mtgox, but I saw the writing on the wall way before they went under and was lucky to get all my coins off it. I dont understand why so many people didnt see the signs?

A total of BTC850,000 and tens of millions of USD in cash was stolen from Mt Gox. But I disagree with you about the warning signals. There were no warnings of any type. Else, most of the users could have withdrawn their coins.

Many people were aware of (mainly fiat) withdrawal issues, but I think few suspected things were as bad as they were. Probably a lot could have been saved had Gox been frank about it earlier.

[bigasic]

I've been trying to educate people on bitcoin since I knew about bitcoin. I explained to my uncle, who is an attorney, and when we talked 6 months or so ago, the only thing he can remember about bitcoin is the mtgox scam. So, it totally turned him off to bitcoin. Im sure it turned millions off as well. Those that  understand it, are used to the scams, unfortunately. but bitcoin is going to be hard to go mainstream with so much bad publicity. plus the mt gox deal wasnt small, hundreds of millions are missing...I feel bad for those that lost money on mtgox, but I saw the writing on the wall way before they went under and was lucky to get all my coins off it. I dont understand why so many people didnt see the signs?

A total of BTC850,000 and tens of millions of USD in cash was stolen from Mt Gox. But I disagree with you about the warning signals. There were no warnings of any type. Else, most of the users could have withdrawn their coins.

My sign was that withdrawals had stopped, this was about 5 months before they closed, i think or a little shorter. but I couldn't withdraw anything from there, then one day boom, it worked, got every satoshi out of there, plus the govt had seized funds from dwolla and their bank, granted it was because of bad agents, but we didnt know that at the time. To me it was a no brainer. I think ive read some posts here from mt.gox members that basically said the same thing.

But, i think most of the people that lost their coin didnt pay attention to the market like some of us. when I mined, I thought and studied bitcoin all day long. Those that just had a few bucks to invest, just put their faith into mt.gox and missed the signs. its not their fault at all, im just saying.. The ones I dont feel too my sympathy for are those that had the same feelings as myself but did nothing about it. well, i still feel bad, but not as bad as those that didnt have the time to keep track of bitcoin on a daily basis.

i think, like with the bad agents, we will eventually find out what happened. Now we have another possibility in the mix.

[bryant.coleman]

My sign was that withdrawals had stopped, this was about 5 months before they closed, i think or a little shorter. but I couldn't withdraw anything from there, then one day boom, it worked, got every satoshi out of there, plus the govt had seized funds from dwolla and their bank, granted it was because of bad agents, but we didnt know that at the time. To me it was a no brainer. I think ive read some posts here from mt.gox members that basically said the same thing.

But, i think most of the people that lost their coin didnt pay attention to the market like some of us. when I mined, I thought and studied bitcoin all day long. Those that just had a few bucks to invest, just put their faith into mt.gox and missed the signs. its not their fault at all, im just saying.. The ones I dont feel too my sympathy for are those that had the same feelings as myself but did nothing about it. well, i still feel bad, but not as bad as those that didnt have the time to keep track of bitcoin on a daily basis.

i think, like with the bad agents, we will eventually find out what happened. Now we have another possibility in the mix.

You were just lucky. See... Mt Gox had such a good reputation around here, at least until the end of 2013. Sometimes people get blinded by a feeling of trust, that they ignore the risks.

[ticoti]

   it looks that that temptations are hard even for agents.

Did these agents give any declaration in the case?
And that declaration are still valid even after what happened?
I don't know if they would be trustable people

[¡ndustrialcoinmagic]

My thought on all this yes silk road was a dark market but im pretty sure this agents made users do even worst stuff from what their normal operations where at some point.
even in real life, you could see how corrupt the justice system is along with the law enforcer they do it all for a # base or to gain better poll ratings.