Some Good News

From John McCreary, at Night Watch

US-Mexico:  The US Treasury Department has frozen the U.S.-based assets of 10 companies and 22 individuals believed to be linked to the Mexican drug cartel Beltran-Leyva Organization (BLO), which is accused of smuggling drugs into the United States and of murdering Mexican counter-narcotics agents, Reuters reported today.  The companies targeted have locations throughout Mexico, and are involved in businesses such as air and vehicle shipping, electronics retailing, hospitality services and health-products trade.

According to the news services from the Texas border, marijuana smuggling is way up but human smuggling is way down, to oversimplify a complex security problem.  The question for the Treasury is why does this process take so long and seems so scatter-shot?

Treasury and its Office of Intelligence and Analysis should be one of the best staffed and best backed intelligence operations in Washington. Despite a small staff, OIA does real work towards permanent solutions.  Doubters only need to ask the Banco Delta Asia and North Korea.

This is tonight’s good news—one Department that fights security problems with the tools that the US excels at:  brains and finance.

Hats off to the US Department of the Treasury.

Regards  —  Cliff