American Notes DRUGS

Three ways to track down illegal drug profits:

1. Arrange for the international exchange of information about the secret bank accounts of drug cartels.

2. Freeze the bank records and funds of suspected narcotics muckamucks.

3. Get a couple of shovels and dig.

No. 1 is in the works. No. 2 was accomplished last week, when a U.S. court ordered 173 banks in 22 states and the District of Columbia to turn over the records of more than 750 suspicious accounts. No. 3 is something the FBI ought to consider.

No. 3, in fact, is driving the FBI crazy. Since early April, some lucky residents of the gritty Puerto Rican seaside village of Vega Baja have been zipping around with new cars and motorcycles, buying new houses and otherwise behaving like Donald Trump. Turns out that several villagers (no one will say who or how many) dug up at least one of about ten big plastic drums containing as much as $20 million that someone, presumably a drug dealer, had buried on a nearby farm. While townsfolk kept digging fresh holes all over the place, agents dashed about trying to reclaim the cash. Fat chance.