Police check seized '$6bn bonds'

[Geoff 10]

Police are examining bonds with a face value of over $6bn (£3.8bn) seized during an operation against Colombian drug traffickers to see if they are genuine... The seizures came after the National Crime Squad (NCS) swooped on addresses in north London and Essex during two raids in July and August. (Source)

 

$6 billion! Wow . If proven to be true, then that's going to hopefully put a dent in the cartel's finances - or so I hope. I knew they made big money from drugs, but having $6bn in a houses around London (i.e. not even in their home country) is serious money...

[halevan 11]

The Police should have been confiscating the proceeds of crime long ago, all crime, these parasites have been getting away with it for far too long. Anyone, either top class or low class should be subject to the same punishment, as it is a well known fact that some of these BIG crime syndicates are above the law.

 

A lot of our vital resources are being bled white by organised crime

so there is no wonder that this economy and its infrastructure is in

need of money, what good are criminals? why tolerate them? send them to hard labour camps for the rest of their lives, so they can earn their keep and also make some contribution to the wealth of the country.

[Andy 10]

What will they do with the $6million?

 

Keep it for the police?

 

Give it to the poor and needy?

[max 13]

Originally posted by Andy

What will they do with the $6million?

 

Keep it for the police?

 

Give it to the poor and needy?

 

$6 BILLION, thats 1000 x $6 million. It goes into the general pot in the fight against drugs, I assume.

 

As a matter of interest does anyone know when a billion was devalued? It used to be a million million now it's 1000 million.

[Phanerothyme 12]

Originally posted by max

$6 BILLION, thats 1000 x $6 million. It goes into the general pot in the fight against drugs, I assume.

 

As a matter of interest does anyone know when a billion was devalued? It used to be a million million now it's 1000 million.

It's a case of divided by a common language again and since the USA is the country (other than China) that uses lots of Billions, there valuation of it has become common currency (pun intended).

 

I believe 1000,000,000 is called a milliard in English.

 

more information about large numbers here

 

As for the $6000 million in bonds, NCIS commented that they are unlikely to be genuine, so I wouldn't count them as a financial blow to the drug cartels.

 

It will take the withdrawal of government involvement with these cartels, both knowing and unwitting, before their power can be seriously eroded. And of course if you break one cartel, all you actually do is cause a disruption in supply. And a distruption in supply will lead to an increase in prices for the substances in question.

 

And an increase in prices mean even bigger, fatter, profits for any would be cartel wishing to step in to the vacuum.

 

Yet another piece of empty propaganda from the armchair generals in the so-called war on drugs.

[mikey 10]

I heard on the TV that this amount was a drop in the ocean to the amount of money that is laundered through the city of London alone. But if it helps to cut organised crime then great.

[max 13]

To digress even further from the subject of bonds, when did this de-valuation of our billion occur? Was it an overnight thing, did multi-millionaires all over Britain suddenly wake up one day and discover that they were in fact billionaires? It may not have been such a momentous occasion, such as a dozen suddenly becoming 8 1/2 (No, Hal, it hasn't, that was a for instance), but it must have affected something somewhere and, possibly, necessitated the updating of some documentation, surely?

 

Come on, someone must remember it happening.