I am more talking about the bosses. I just can’t understand what they do with their money to enjoy it. I mean if you are on a most wanted list, I assume you can’t drive around in a 400k luxury car or stay in the biggest house with all the extravagant parties.
In: Economics
They don’t stay hidden. We all know who runs the cartels and the mobs and gangs. Money can buy you a lot. The government was after al Capone for years.
in 1993 one of the biggest narco bosses in washington state (old man) was driven around in a 1970s toyota, not sure if it’s changed but it used to be that those with real power kept themselves low profile.
A 400k car isnt going to attract attention from common cops. Nor will staying in a mansion with parties.
If you are talking about bosses who are getting away with it, there are generally enough links in their organization so that their culpability is extremely low unless someone brought forth a proper RICO investigation. For example, they might talk to one guy who then talks to another guy, and both guys are in an actual legitimate operation and business, which then links back to actual crime.
I say this because rich people live everywhere and even in rich areas its not like all the rich people know each other. Being rich affords a great degree of privacy.
However, even to this degree, they are getting their income, and even in the upper brackets, they are still living a life that is explainable in the books. These are the smart criminals.
The dumb criminals spend their cash on a Lambo and brag to undercover cops and snitches at parties about all the money they are earning. They are surprised in two years how the hell the cops caught them.
They are usually more “protected” than hidden. Lots of people work for them who can make them physically, financially and legally untouchable. If any person or entity is coming for them, they will have either advance notice, an escape plan or both.
I can’t remember the exact person but I once watched a true crime doc about a man who ran the drug trade in his town. He paid for everyone’s light bills and sent groceries to people who were struggling, bought new sneakers and backpacks for all the kids every September, made donations to local politicians, paid for the local basketball courts and park to be cleaned up and basically had a policy of “if you are struggling and or have a problem come to me.” In turn the whole community knew who he was and what he was doing but they refused to give him up or tattle or cooperate. They loved him because he took care of them. Now granted he wasn’t a kingpin like an Escobar but he essentially was raking in big money while hiding in plain sight.
Are you familiar with the carrot vs. the stick analogy for getting what you want from someone? In this case the carrot is millions of dollars in unmarked bills and the stick is you end up hanging from an overpass minus your head. Given how common those two outcomes are it’s not surprising that everyone looks the other way. Easy to hide when EVERYONE knows to pretend not to see you.
They launder the money through companies. We have a logging company that sells hats, hoodies and stupid shit, no one buys it. They sell this crap at a ridiculous mark-up, on paper, then burn the cheap imported crap, voila, clean money.
> I mean if you are on a most wanted list, I assume you can’t drive around in a 400k luxury car or stay in the biggest house with all the extravagant parties.
Sure you can. First off, in the US as long as you live in one of the major cities, driving a $400k vehicle is not so uncommon that the police would be able to investigate every single one.
Secondly at that level you are laundering your money so that it has the appearance of the legit source. So “everyone” might know you are a drug dealer, but on paper you own a chain of laundromat in mexico so all the money appears to have a clean source. Lile others have said, knowing and proving are not the same thing.
Third, if you don’t live in the US it’s also possible that you have local law enforcement and potentially local politicians in your pocket. If that’s the case it’s very difficult to get arrested and is why many of the top drug kingpins tend to live in Mexico or other South American countries.
I feel like the question of how do rich people avoid being held accountable for their crimes has been well answered by history.
Many live in places where the corruption in government is from top to bottom. It is easy to have a good life when you are a criminal if all of the lawmakers and law enforcement is criminal. I was talking to a guy who vacations in a town in Mexico, one year every person on the police force was replaced. Cartel now runs the law enforcement there. Another guy I used to work with came from Mexico when his dad, who worked in law enforcement, chose to escape from being pushed into being controlled by the local cartel. Being an honest cop was not healthy. Money and intimidation are important business tactics of criminals. These work well with politicians and other people who want power.
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