#DOJ has directed prosecutors to stop pursuing litigation against people committing #fraud w/ #digital #currency, the latest example of the #Trump admin easing up on #WhiteCollarCrime enforcement.

In a memo sent to the DOJ on Mon night, Dpty AG #ToddBlanche said the dept will no longer participate in regulation in the digital asset space & will instead focus on crimes that people commit w/ #cryptocurrency, such as dealing #narcotics & #HumanTrafficking.

#law #felon47
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/08/trump-crypto-fraud-doj-enforcement/

#OTD (Mar 21) in #OrganizedCrime #History: young #Lansky leaves Russia, #Capone surrenders but isn't wanted, #Costello testifies, #Valachi and associates are convicted of #narcotics smuggling, grand jury looks into #Brooklyn gunfight, #Briguglio is murdered in #Manhattan, #Bruno is murdered in #Philadelphia, #Salerno faces racketeering charge.

#MafiaHistory #Histodons @mafiahistory

#OTD (Mar 13) in #OrganizedCrime #History: none are convicted of #NewOrleans police chief's assassination, #Mafia counterfeiters are guilty in #NewYork, #Buffalo extortionist gets a year, Vitale is removed from #NYC magistrate bench, #Costello talks to #Kefauver panel, Tramunti is guilty on #narcotics charge, boss #Gotti beats rackets charge, Cali is killed at #StatenIsland

#MafiaHistory #Histodons @mafiahistory

#Mexico extradites 29 drug suspects to #US as #Trump *threatens* #sanctions

Mexico extradited 29 alleged drug traffickers to the #UnitedStates, reportedly including Rafael Caro Quintero, a prized target long sought for killing a US #DEA agent. The dramatic gesture occurred just days before Trump planned to impose crushing economic sanctions in retaliation for Mexico’s failure to stop the flow of #narcotics over the border.

#law #geopolitics #economy #immigration
https://apnews.com/article/mexico-drug-lord-rafael-caro-quintero-extradition-ad769ef1f2addd8530f4b8b96d00bb4c

Exclusive: #Trump’s foreign #aid freeze stops anti-#fentanyl work in #Mexico

Trump has vowed to destroy Mexican cartels & end the US fentanyl epidemic, but his sweeping freeze on foreign aid has temporarily stopped #US-funded anti-#narcotics programs in Mexico that for years have been working to curb the flow of the synthetic #opioid into the #UnitedStates.

#USAID #law #geopolitics #USpol #idiocracy
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trumps-foreign-aid-freeze-stops-anti-fentanyl-work-mexico-2025-02-13/

More than 32,000 people have been displaced in Colombia after renewed violence between warring drug traffickers has sent citizens fleeing and threatens the country’s path to peace. Read more from @CNN
https://flip.it/-0kxQf
#Colombia #Drugs #SouthAmerica #LatinAmerica #Narcotics

→ Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

“US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.”

On January 21, 2025, Donald Trump pardoned Ross #Ulbricht

"the founder of #SilkRoad .. convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing #narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic #fraudulent identity documents, ... He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole." [#wikipedia]

#moneylaundering #trafficking

via @cryptohagen

#OTD (Jan. 2) in 1924: Four #Buffalo NY gangsters are charged with attempting to kill a U.S. government informant in a #narcotics case.
https://buffalomob.com/otd/p-0102.html

#OTD (Dec. 10) in #OrganizedCrime #History: #BlackHand in #Baltimore, counterfeit in #Manhattan, Loiacono murdered, a mob-backed #Brooklyn laundry union, #Lansky citizenship threatened, massive #narcotics ring, #Gallo group indicted, #Gambino leaders arrested.

#OTD in 1959: Joseph #Valachi was arrested on #narcotics charges at a #ThomastonCT #Connecticut phone booth, near the trailer park where he had been hiding out.

Much more about Valachi:
https://informer-journal.blogspot.com/2024/10/november-2024-issue-of-informer.html

I am happy to report the surgeon has prescribed a narcotic to help with my pain. Took one about twenty minutes ago. Pain that was at a constant 10 has backed off to a much more manageable 6. I haven’t slept more than an hour at a time in five days. I am hoping this does the trick and I can get a few solid hours in tonight. So grateful for the miracle of medicine…even though the potential side effects aren’t good. Right now, I just need some relief.
#contentwarning #narcotics

#OTD in 1944: Joe #Valachi is charged in the Eastern District of New York with his first #narcotics offense. (The case is later dismissed.) #MafiaHistory #Histodons

Read about Valachi in Informer's 2024 issue, The Treacherous World of Joseph Valachi, available now:
https://informer-journal.blogspot.com/2024/10/november-2024-issue-of-informer.html

“… the suspects were involved in large-scale drug #trafficking operations from South America to Europe, primarily targeting the port of #Antwerp, Belgium, where their organisation had a strong presence. The criminal network specialised in smuggling vast quantities of #cocaine by concealing #narcotics within #maritime cargo, often with the help of front companies, particularly within the fruit industry.”

#Europol #drugs #camorra #mafia

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/two-high-profile-camorra-fugitives-arrested-in-colombia-through-international-cooperation

“Narcotics in all of my songs”: Taylor Swift’s “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?" ("The Tortured Poets Department", 2024). #111Words #TaylorSwift #WhosAfraidOfLittleOldMe #TheTorturedPoetsDepartment #Narcotics #Rhetoric #Metaphor https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2024/10/narcotics-in-all-of-my-songs-taylor.html

Sharks On Cocaine: Recreational Narcotics Are Contaminating Ecosystems

"The drug was found in all wild Brazilian sharpnose sharks tested, with a concentration as much as 100 times higher than previously reported for other aquatic creatures."

by @grrlscientist via @medium

#cocaine #RecreationalDrugs #narcotics #pollution #sharks #evolution #ecology #Ecosystem #SciComm https://medium.com/discourse/sharks-on-cocaine-recreational-narcotics-are-contaminating-ecosystems-46fee83ed051

Discovery of cocaine use in 17th-century Europe challenges historical assumptions

Researchers have found traces of cocaine in the brain tissue of two individuals buried in a 17th-century crypt in Milan, Italy. The findings challenge the longstanding belief that cocaine usage in Europe began only in the 19th century, two centuries later than previously thought...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2024/09/cocaine-use-in-17th-century-europe/

Follow @archaeology

1st Annual Marijuana Harvest Festival, Sept. 25

http://www.loc.gov/item/2016648072/

Fabien Rossat's latest article examines the Mancuso brothers, #FrenchConnection #narcotics smugglers active on both sides of the Atlantic.

Read it here (English translation on site): https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blogspot.com/2024/09/les-freres-mancuso-de-alcamo-new-york.html

“In October 2022, a grand jury indicted Goran #Gogic, a former heavyweight boxer who also allegedly used commercial container ships to smuggle #cocaine from South America into the United States and Europe. In a press release U.S. authorities said the seizure of the MSC Gayane at the Port of Philadelphia was “one of the largest in U.S. history,” and that Gogic allegedly transported more than $1 billion worth of cocaine.”

#SkyECC #narcotics

https://www.404media.co/us-feds-are-tapping-a-half-billion-encrypted-messaging-goldmine-2/