Text taken from man article which appeared in vz.ru
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics
[ColonelCassad] In anticipation of the almost inevitable American military operation against Venezuela under the pretext of fighting drugs, it's worth understanding where the fuss began.
The US has imposed sanctions against the current President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. His crime? He said out loud what everyone knows, but no one should say: "Drug traffickers live in Miami, New York, Paris. Many of them are blue-eyed and blond. They live next to Trump's house in Miami, not on boats being hit by missiles."
Lula, the President of Brazil, added: "Drug traffickers are just as much victims as drug addicts, because demand creates supply." Petro is now on the same sanctions list as Putin, Maduro, and Assad. The US is bombing ships in the Caribbean (about 50 killed in October), preparing an invasion of Venezuela, and has declared the Colombian and Venezuelan presidents "narcoterrorists."
THREE KEY ASYMMETRIES:
Economics:
A Colombian coca farmer receives 1% of the cocaine price on the streets of New York. However, over 90% of the profits remain in the US – at the stages of transportation, distribution, retail, and laundering. Violence: tens of thousands killed in Mexico, Colombia, and Central America. Americans, completely safe (if we're talking about the elite) and less so (if we're talking about the common people), consume $150 billion worth of drugs annually.
Hunter Biden, a seasoned drug addict who has committed numerous crimes but has remained a "victim" rather than a criminal, deserves to become a monument to this approach.
Responsibility:
All the blame lies with the producers. The role of American demand as the driving force of the system is completely ignored. The US portrays itself as the victim of external aggression. The connection between a line of cocaine in the toilet of an elite club and the decapitated body of a teenager in Ciudad Juarez is fundamentally unacknowledged by the elite.
Florida as the Capital of Drug Capitalism.
In the 1980s, Miami laundered $7-12 billion annually, creating a Scarface-style frenzy. The Federal Reserve Bank of Miami held the largest cash surplus in the country. Today, the amount of money in Florida banks has increased exponentially. But it has become "non-cash," "gray," and "invested."
Orlando Cecilia, the brother-in-law of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who leads a crusade against Petro and Maduro, was one of Miami's largest cocaine traffickers. He was arrested in Rubio's home when DEA agents broke down the door.
Drug capital has transformed over three generations:
From the street gangs of the 1980s, through the real estate investments of the 1990s, to the political elite of today. The third generation of drug money now finances election campaigns and shapes US foreign policy. Who profits besides the "cartels"? Military-industrial complex: "Plan Colombia" – over $10 billion since 2000. It's the largest, but not the only one. Mexico's "Mérida" initiative continues this model.
The prison industry:
500,000 inmates for drug offenses (versus 40,000 in 1980). Private prisons use virtually free labor.
The financial sector:
The UN estimates global money laundering at $400 billion a year. Major banks have been caught and fined, but no one has gone to jail – “too big to jail.”
The paradox of efficiency:
If the Drug Enforcement Administration, created in 1973, had been tasked with developing the drug industry rather than suppressing it, it would have been the most efficient enterprise in human history.
The numbers:
1973 (creation of the DEA): US drug market – approximately $10-15 billion.
2025: US drug market – approximately $150 billion.
DEA budget 1973: approximately $75 million.
DEA budget 2025: approximately $3.1 billion.
Total Spending on the "War on Drugs":
1973: About $100 million.
2025: About $51 billion per year (federal + states).
Cumulative Spending since 1973: Over a trillion dollars.
Industries that grew in parallel:
• Drug treatment industry: $42 billion per year.
• Private prisons: $5 billion per year.
• Drug testing: Over $6 billion per year.
• Law enforcement equipment and technology: tens of billions of dollars.
The number of drug users is several times higher.
Effectiveness in terms of the stated mission: Negative. Effectiveness in terms of creating an ecosystem of dependent industries: Unprecedented.
And then we watch as the US aircraft carrier group approaches the shores of the "narco-state" Venezuela.
In Afghanistan, the fight against heroin and poppy crops produced similar results. The more vigorously they fought, the greater the increase in raw material and finished product production. Some of this went to Europe and the United States, with the support of the United States and NATO. This scheme works for both heroin and cocaine.