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2025-02-02 Caribbean-Latin America

Erik Prince: Letters of Marque Would Allow Private Organizations to Wipe Out Drug Cartels

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Posted by Skidmark 2025-02-02 00:20|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11149 views ] Top

#1 Give Prince a private military contract, an area of operation, and turn him loose.

Posted by Besoeker 2025-02-02 02:23|| 2025-02-02 02:23|| Front Page Top

#2 Sounds like a "New-Blackwater" type solution.

If it can keep its nose clean to go around, given its new owners.

Posted by NN2N1 2025-02-02 04:48|| 2025-02-02 04:48|| Front Page Top

#3 Sounds good to me. Go get 'em boys.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2025-02-02 07:44|| 2025-02-02 07:44|| Front Page Top

#4 Not sure about the keeping a percentage of the spoils; suppose the gov’t could offer s bounty on the drugs and guns/weapons, but since the cartels deal in illicit things/ operations, where is the legitimate reward for the holders of such letters?

Posted by USN, Ret. 2025-02-02 09:09|| 2025-02-02 09:09|| Front Page Top

#5 They deal in the illicit and illegal — and avocados — but they own all sorts of fancy cars, guns, airplanes, houses, jewelry, decorative items, USN, Ret. All the usual things collected by stereotypical nouveau riche gangster types.

Posted by trailing wife 2025-02-02 10:31|| 2025-02-02 10:31|| Front Page Top

#6 The live wire here is potential liability for actions.
Can the actions under Marque cause you go to war?

Posted by ed in texas 2025-02-02 10:41|| 2025-02-02 10:41|| Front Page Top

#7 an area of operation

The web of deceit, and the money train, is global.
Let them keep what they capture.
Privateers!

Posted by Skidmark 2025-02-02 11:25|| 2025-02-02 11:25|| Front Page Top

#8 There is also head money- paid per enemy captured or killed. This could be extended to drugs destroyed.

Posted by Ululating Platypus 2025-02-02 18:04|| 2025-02-02 18:04|| Front Page Top

#9 There is also head money- paid per enemy captured or killed.

Along with both ears, of course.

The live wire here is potential liability for actions. Can the actions under Marque cause you go to war?

Not a lawyer, but in practical terms, yes. There will be ~~f**kups~~ mistakes, of course, some of them appalling. But think of it like hiring a cleaning crew to tidy up the office. You could do it in-house, but outsourcing to the commercial world is simply simpler.

It is another tool in the toolbox. You can chastise miscreants without having to go all To the Shores of Tripoli on their bothersome asses. That card you can save for later when it is time to escalate.

Posted by SteveS 2025-02-02 18:45|| 2025-02-02 18:45|| Front Page Top

#10 I don’t think the letters work on land in Mexico. The cartels have RPGs and above. The army and police are bought off. There will be too many civilian casualties. They work on the high seas against cigarette boats in the Caribbean. They would also work against the Houthi and Somalis. They would probably work on land with regard to drones.

Posted by Super Hose 2025-02-02 18:58|| 2025-02-02 18:58|| Front Page Top

#11 The Pangas off San Diego are pretty much all Cartel human trafficking. Drugs, et al, are via inland

Posted by Frank G 2025-02-02 19:11|| 2025-02-02 19:11|| Front Page Top

#12 I don’t think the letters work on land in Mexico. The cartels have RPGs and above. The army and police are bought off.

I agree. It is a matter of scale. If your PMC is the size of Wagners with organic artillery and capable of invading a country, maybe. But at some point, you need to fire up your national army and go to work.

It will be interesting to see if there is enough functional government left in Mexico for our military to coordinate with.

Posted by SteveS 2025-02-02 21:28|| 2025-02-02 21:28|| Front Page Top

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