A bit of a story at times - thanks NYtimes - but a good read nonetheless. I especially love the drug traffickng infographic.
Take the opening paragraph with a grain of salt. That's just some fucking storytelling. The real reason the guy got on radar and eventually busted is much more reasonable:
- Unbeknown to the task force in New York, a separate team from the drug agency had around that time started a sting operation against money launderers working with Mexican drug cartels. That fall, for instance, an undercover agent posing as a cartel financier had persuaded Mr. Racine, Mr. Cournoyer’s New York manager and one of his closest partners, to give him $94,000 in marijuana profits, promising to reinvest — and cleanse — the money through the purchase of cocaine.
2007/08 was when the DEA was on their shit - they busted up a ton of operations down in Mexico and threw the cartels off their stability. 2008 was when the cartels were all over the map fighting for power rather than relying on a very stable drug trade / trafficking. This is also when they said "dont travel to mexico" and "be careful around the border" because the young bucks that were taking over operations were kidnapping white American girls. lulz
Also, apparently some big time drug dudes forgot that it's no longer 1997
The way this paragraph begins and the way it ends leave me sort of baffled.That same year, Mr. Cournoyer crashed his Porsche, killing a passenger, and was imprisoned on charges related to the death. Although he served only a year, he was forced upon his release to live in a halfway house in Montreal. In his absence, his enterprise had fallen into “tatters,” Mr. Tiscione said. But Mr. Cournoyer managed to rebuild it, meeting secretly with associates during hurried rendezvous in the Montreal subway and while on work release from the halfway house, where — industrious as ever — he had found a job driving an elderly woman to her medical appointments.
More Thoughts from flagamuffin: I wonder what percentage of guests at parties where Dicaprio is also present made their money illegally. He must know people in strange places. Bet it makes some of those parties kinda weird. Like that poker game where one of the celebrities wanted the female host to make animal noises, wasn't Dicaprio around for that?At the height of his success, Mr. Cournoyer, who is now 34 and is awaiting placement in the federal prison system, drove a Porsche Cayenne and a $2 million limited-edition Bugatti Veyron. He was friends with Georges St. Pierre, a mixed-martial arts fighter, and dated a lingerie model. His social circle was configured such that once, on a trip to Ibiza, he attended the same party as Leonardo DiCaprio.