Yes, the War on Drugs is Insane

The Washington Post reports on how Prince George’s County police and Sheriff’s officers, including a full SWAT team, broke into the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights, shot his two dogs and handcuffed he and his mother-in-law and interrogated them. Why? In Arizona a drug sniffing dog identified a package addressed to Calvo’s wife as containing marijuana. The Prince George authorities disguised themselves as delivery people and with SWAT team and other officers in place delivered the package. Wasn’t the fact that an older woman (the mother-in-law) told them to just leave it on the porch a good first clue that something was a bit odd? So the mayor comes home from walking the dogs, sees the package addressed to his wife and takes it in and puts it on the table, just as most of us would do.

A few minutes later the door bursts open as the SWAT team invades and they immediately shoot one dog and then kill the other when it comes running into the room. Why would they do this? Why were there no Federal officials there when this shipment made in a crime crossing multiple state lines? Why didn’t the county cops contact the local police? Simple. Money. I have no doubt the county officials will deny it but anyone familiar with what goes on with drug busts now knows that whatever agency makes the arrest can take any money and property the drug dealer has. Even if the suspect is found innocent the property is often never returned. If you involve the Feds or any other law enforcement agency you have to split the money with them. Apparently in their rush to bust the wealthy drug dealer receiving 32 pounds of pot and seize their property it never occurred to them to investigate who lived at the house and consider that just maybe a violent assault on the part time mayor whose day job is running a national non-profit organization called SEED wasn’t the brightest move they could make.