Lawyers, drugs and money

After reading dengre's diary (see my previous post), I started to think about Senator Tester's allegations.

Anybody who has been paying attention at all knows that ice has been a serious local problem since the mid-eighties. Users are pretty obvious if you have a passing knowledge of its effects. It's also a national problem.

What concerns me is the implication of the Commonwealth, and Saipan in particular, as a trans-shipment point. Could this be true?

I only remember arrests and convictions for fairly small amounts of methamphetamine. But those are the mules, not the studs, you might say. It's certainly possible. You'd think that sort of enterprise, particularly when fueled by that drug, would leak information eventually. Competitors, disgruntled underlings; that kind of thing.

Money laundering? I heard snide comments about a former owner of the Bank of Saipan and similar shots have been taken at the Tinian Dynasty. I considered them jokes, not even dignified enough to be rumors.

But.

Hmm, a bank subject to local laws, a casino being regulated by newbies, huge remittances flowing out. It's backwards, but opportunity and motive are there, so is the crime?

Law enforcement types obviously aren't going to tip their hand, but has anybody heard anything about this? I'm just curious.