Syrian Rebels Uncover Huge Captagon Stash, Federal Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill Filed, More… (12/13/24)

The company strategic consulting agency McKinsey & Firm has agreed to pay a whole bunch of thousands and thousands for its function in creating the prescription opioid dependancy epidemic, and extra. 

Opiates and Opioids

Company Administration Consulting Agency McKinsey to Pay $650 Million in Opioid Settlement With Justice Division. McKinsey & Firm, a strategic and administration consulting agency that suggested Purdue Pharma, amongst different shoppers, has agreed to pay $650 million to the Justice Division over its work with the OxyContin producer. A senior firm govt, Martin Elling, will plead responsible to obstruction of justice for destroying firm data in a bid to obscure its function in serving to to generate the opioid epidemic of the previous quarter-century. 

McKinsey suggested Purdue to “turbocharge” the sale of OxyContin even because the prescription opioid was driving the unfold of opiate use that morphed into the illicit fentanyl epidemic that also confronts the nation. McKinsey billed Purdue $93 million for consulting over 15 years. 

McKinsey had beforehand settled opioid investigations by paying a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} however not admitting any wrongdoing. That’s not the case. 

The corporate issued a press release Friday apologizing for its function within the opioid epidemic: “We’re deeply sorry for our previous consumer service to Purdue Pharma and the actions of a former associate who deleted paperwork associated to his work for that consumer,” the consulting agency wrote. “We must always have appreciated the hurt opioids had been inflicting in our society and we must always not have undertaken gross sales and advertising and marketing work for Purdue Pharma. This horrible public well being disaster and our previous work for opioid producers will all the time be a supply of profound remorse for our agency.”

Asset Forfeiture

Sens. Booker, Paul Introduce Bipartisan FAIR Act to Reform Civil Forfeiture Legal guidelines. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rand Paul (R-KY) launched the Fifth Modification Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act on Thursday to reform civil forfeiture legal guidelines and defend Individuals’ rights from authorities abuse. 

“Civil asset forfeiture permits federal legislation enforcement to grab the property of Individuals who haven’t even been charged with or convicted of against the law,” stated Booker. “Beneath this technique, police can preserve money, vehicles, and even properties primarily based on mere suspicion of against the law. These losses typically develop into legislation enforcement’s revenue as a result of the burden is on the property proprietor to show they need to get their property again. Reforming federal civil asset forfeiture is lengthy overdue and the FAIR Act will guarantee due course of and defend the general public from unfair deprivations and forfeiture abuses.”

The newest model of the FAIR Act carefully mirrors earlier variations of the invoice, with updates to mirror modifications made by the Home Judiciary Committee throughout a markup on June 14, 2023. The invoice was favorably reported out of committee by a unanimous 26-0 vote, signaling broad bipartisan assist and rising the probability of legislative progress. Within the Senate, the FAIR Act is at present cosponsored by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mike Lee (R-UT), Angus King (I-ME), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).

The FAIR Act would get rid of “equitable sharing,” this system that permits state legislation enforcement officers to show seized property over to federal officers for forfeiture — and rise up to 80% of the proceeds of the forfeited property. The FAIR Act ends “equitable” sharing and ensures that legislation enforcement can not ignore state legislation. It could additionally restore the rule during which the proceeds of forfeiture go to the Treasury’s Basic Fund, the place Congress can applicable the cash for any goal.

The FAIR Act additionally locations on the federal government the burden to indicate {that a} property proprietor consented or was willfully blind to his property being utilized in against the law by a 3rd social gathering and would require that the federal government show its case by the upper normal of clear and convincing proof, as an alternative of the present preponderance of the proof normal that the property was used for an unlawful goal.

Worldwide

Syrian Rebels Uncover Large Cache of Captagon at Military Base Run By Assad’s Brother. Captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant widespread within the Center East, has been rumored to be an enormous income generator for the lately deposed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and now, along with his regime having vanished and Assad himself having fled to Moscow, Syrian rebels are including some substance to these rumors. 

They launched movies Friday of a captagon manufacturing facility hidden in a quarry at a Syrian Military base overseen by his youthful brother, Maher al-Assad, one of the highly effective males within the nation (till final week). The manufacturing facility contained a whole bunch of 1000’s of the drugs, in addition to piles of precursor chemical substances. 

Captagon manufacturing in Syria was pioneered by insurgent factions after the civil struggle broke out in 2011 however since has reportedly come to be dominated by the Syrian state. The worldwide marketplace for captagon is valued at round $10 billion, with about 80 % being manufactured in Syria, netting the al-Assad authorities round $2.4 billion a 12 months, greater than it is war-torn and sanction-battered reputable economic system. A lot of the manufacturing and distribution was overseen by the Fourth Armored Division of the Syrian Military, an elite unit commanded by Maher al-Assad. Different main gamers within the commerce included regime-friendly businessmen, Hezbollah, and extra members of al-Assad’s prolonged household. 

Ahmed al-Shara, chief of the insurgent offensive that broke the al-Assad regime, vowed to eradicate the commerce throughout a speech final week: “Syria has develop into the largest producer of captagon on Earth,” he stated, “and immediately, Syria goes to be purified by the grace of God.”

However given the massive income concerned, the disarray inside Syria, the well-established smuggling networks, the simple entry to precursor chemical substances, and captagon-hungry client markets within the area, it’s exhausting to see the commerce going away.