Time to Shut Down the Dope Banks!

July 23, 2012 • 7:56AM

The list of banks caught for money laundering in recent years is impressive. We can name quite a few off the tops of our heads—HSBC, Wachovia, Barclays, RBS's and the Queen's Coutts, ING, Lloyds TSB, Bank of America, Riggs, and American Express—and there are undoubtedly many more. When these banks get caught, they are usually given civil fines for having inadequate anti-money-laundering controls and oversight, as if their laundering of dope money was some sort of bureaucratic foul-up which left them vulnerable to being fooled by clever dope dealers.

The truth is far different. HSBC, for example, historically financed opium production and smuggling, as well as handling the proceeds, so it was involved in the production and distribution of dope. We also know that the Brits, through the big Canadian banks, set up the banking apparatus in the Caribbean as a precursor to the dope explosion in Ibero-America, and that Mexico was turned into a haven for the dope cartels only after its banking system was taken over by foreign banks, including HSBC. The dope banks are an integral part of the dope business, and at the top are part of the controlling apparatus of Dope, Inc. Banks don't get into the dope trade by accident, but damn well know what they are doing. Instead of civil fines, we need criminal prosecutions—of the banks, themselves, as well as their relevant employees. It's time to shut down Dope, Inc.