Thursday, December 3, 2009

Freezing Assets

The US Treasury Department froze the funds and prohibited interaction with 22 people and ten businesses associated with the Beltrán Leyva gang earlier today.

It's been a while since we've heard any news like that; the financial side of the war on drug gangs, which was played up a great deal during the first years of Calderón's term, has fallen by the wayside in recent months. Which is a shame, because asset-seizure and the like is a good way to begin the Herculean task of isolating organized crime from the rest of society. And as the leader of a criminal gang, if there is a pervasive climate of fear among legitimate businessmen that the government will punish them for doing business with you, that's more harmful than an arrest here or there.

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