"This is very serious and has created major problems in the community," said Clifford Martel, a former senior police investigator for the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota, who was fired in July and said it was because he had tried to rid that reservation of drug traffickers with close ties to powerful tribe members.
"The amount of drugs was really impacting that community, our community, just as if it were Chicago, and big loads were coming in all the time," Mr. Martel said.
For traffickers of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, painkillers and people, reservations offer many advantages. Law enforcement is spotty at best. Tribal sovereignty, varying state laws and inconsistent federal interest in prosecuting drug crimes create jurisdictional confusion and conflict.
The deep loyalty that exists within tribes, where neighbors are often related, and the intense mistrust of the American justice system make securing witnesses and using undercover informants extremely difficult. And on some reservations, Indian drug traffickers have close relationships with tribal government or law enforcement officials and enjoy special protection that allows them to operate freely, investigators say.
For the yuppies who think drug legalization would be better than the drug wars, I suggest they live in Red Lake for a couple months... the last time Red Lake was in the News, it was because a boy shot 8 in the school...and the PC types blamed Prozac...not noticing that his father committed suicide and his mother was no where to be found...essentially the kid was abused as a kid, and full of anger...and he didn't even attend the local high school, because of his emotional problems..
The number of child abuse, elder abuse, spousal abuse, teenaged suicides, DUI's and some pretty frightening murders that occur was not "cultural" as much as related to the widespread use of drugs, mainly marijuana, but also alcohol, crank, and Tyenol with codiene....
As for the note about "close relationships" making things difficult...well, we had a girl attacked by some dogs...when we finally got to call a jury of 8 out of a jury pool of 40, we couldn't find 8 people who weren't related to the plantiff, the girl's family, the judge, any of the court officials, or the police who were involved...
Just like here in the Philippines, family connections are more important than justice...
Now, drug abuse is not an ethnic problem...I saw similar problems in whites in Oklahoma...and the upper class abuse of drugs in Pennsylvania yuppies merely led to a different kind of abuse...neglect of children, indifference to society around oneself, and an arrogance toward the less fortunate.
Personally, I preferred the families of Red Lake to the proud and hoity toity elites...
You know, NO ONE in Red Lake hospital or nursing home died alone and neglected...
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