Drug gangs stop banks collapsing
jonty | 20.02.2009 19:34
United Nations drug tsar Antonio Maria Costa said profits made by drug gangs have helped to prevent some banks from collapsing, this week, in an astonishing interview with Austrian magazine Profil.
The zero tolerance drug fanatic said the UN had evidence that some banks had been rescued by ‘interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade’ though refused to name names or even countries,
"In many instances, drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital," Mr Costa reportedly said, “In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor,” he added.
Civil liberties campaigner David Borden, executive director of Drug War Chronicle, chided Mr Costa for being ‘a little too honest’ and noted Costa’s credentials as a highly trained economist.
“Suppose the drug war magically started to work and the trade were wiped out, or people suddenly stopped using drugs. What would happen to the economy?” he asked.
“What would happen to countries like Afghanistan or Colombia or Mexico where a lot of the money being made is in drugs and a lot of people are dependent on that money? Or in some sectors of US society, for that matter? It would be a catastrophe,” he predicted.
British drugs expert Danny Kushlick from Transform also ridiculed Costa’s anti-drugs organisation and its relentless zero tolerance approach, this week, accusing the UN of practising ‘inhumane, unjust and irrational’ policies.
"The (UN) board is complicit in gifting the illegal drug market to terror groups, paramilitaries and organised criminals, contributing to the political and economic destabilisation of producer and transit countries and putting millions at risk of contracting blood-borne viruses,” he said.
“The INCB (International Narcotics Control Board) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime pose a greater threat to global well-being than drugs themselves,” he added. (Guardian)
http://m1e.net/c?79583927-k8CMQikfAT0EY%404003498-jmF.Pa3Icz/4M
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/570/costa_UNODC_drug_trade_banks
http://www.420magazine.com/forums/international-cannabis-news/87591-drug-money-helps-banks-through-crisis.html
http://www.profil.at/
jonty@skrufff.com
jonty
Comments
Display the following 2 comments