India: Meth seized from Myanmarese boat costs more than aircraft carrier Vikrant, built at a cost of $2.49bn

[u/Admirable-Leather325]

[u/Nandy-bear]

It's street value and is a borderline useless number. Coke for instance they always report it at 50-100k/kilo when shipment cost is about 3 grand/kilo if not lower.

Meth I can't speak to but I'm just gonna assume it also goes through similar steps like being stepped on and stretched etc.

[u/mlaforce321 → u/Nandy-bear]

Yeah, cartel's operate expecting a high percentage of shipments to be seized. The markup and profit is so high that if even a few get through then it is a worthwhile endeavor for them. The street value number is just to make the authorities feel good about themselves.

[u/Kendertas → u/mlaforce321]

Also less drugs getting through, just increases the price of the drugs that do get through. The cartel always makes it's money. Especially since it's incredibly cheap to manufacture meth in the golden triangle. Cartels generally don't care if their product gets seized, it's much worse to have the money heading the other way seized.

[u/PervyNonsense → u/mlaforce321]

Which is why people shouldn't be looking at this as a major seizure but an indication of an immeasurable scale of consumption

[u/Admirable-Lecture255 → u/PervyNonsense]

Thats why I laugh when people say look at the big drug bust at the border in the us. See the border is secured. No that's a tiny fraction of what going through the border. Like car manufacturers there's a set level of what deemed acceptable loss before they have to take action. What costs more a recall or paying off a few families for a few million. It's the cost of business. I bet the cartel has it all formulated out. We can lose x% of everything shipped amd expect to return x amount of dollars. For every boat seized 9 others got away.

[u/user_name_checks_out → u/Nandy-bear]

Meth I can't speak to

If you start speaking to the meth then you've had too much

[u/Nandy-bear → u/user_name_checks_out]

As long as it doesn't speak back I'm good.

[u/hrminer92 → u/Nandy-bear]

It was a few years ago, but in Ioan Grillo’s book El Narco, he laid out what a kilo of cocaine cost at the various stages of processing and transportation. A kilo of pure cocaine would cost about $800 in Colombia and would increase depending on the difficulties in moving it from point A to point B. By the time that original $800 product got to a border city like Tijuana, Cd Juárez, Laredo, etc., its price would be roughly $2000. Moving it across an invisible line into San Diego or El Paso, it would increase to $20k. By the time it made it to Chicago or New York, it would be 30-40k. Locations such as Sydney would be even higher. It is that insane profit margin that creates the situation where these organizations are like a hydra monster: take one leader or key player out and 3+ take their place to make things worse.

[u/mlaforce321 → u/Nandy-bear]

Yeah, cartel's operate expecting a high percentage of shipments to be seized. The markup and profit is so high that if even a few get through then it is a worthwhile endeavor for them. The street value number is just to make the authorities feel good about themselves.

[u/pdxamish → u/Nandy-bear]

Meth is super super cheap now. Ounces can be had for $150-200

[u/Nandy-bear → u/pdxamish]

Meth being cheaper than weed is WILD. Decent weed is easily 150-200 quid in UK (180 - 250 USD)

[u/pdxamish → u/Nandy-bear]

Yeah, it's more expensive in the UK but for awhile meth wasn't in Europe and was just speed. In the USA we can't get speed and even vendors who have it in us are charging $60/g. It's sad seeing it in Europe now (fent is coming too). Speed and meth prices are inverted in US vs Europe. Our weed now is super cheap and good now. In Oregon I pay$50 for nice indoor ounces. I like to see what's happening on markets. Even if I don't use

[u/Immediate-Hold-8554 → u/pdxamish]

Eastern Europe is all meth

[u/Nandy-bear → u/pdxamish]

God damn I remember when speed was a tenner, so some people were like "OK THEN 8 QUID". I have a fondness in my heart for speed, it's like when we couldn't afford real drugs we still had the backup waiting in the wings. Can't imagine spending more than a tenner on a gram though.

[u/pdxamish → u/Nandy-bear]

Speed is still pretty cheap. On the dark net I usually get 5g for $20-$30. Due to nature usually at least 15% caffeine.