As leftist-run cities around the country deal with spiking crime that increasingly goes unpunished by so-called "progressive" prosecutors who treat suspects as victims, there are more and more stories showing how deeply flawed woke bail "reform" measures are and what the real-world impacts of them turn out to be. This week, there's another example from New York City where two men from the other side of the country were arrested with more than one million dollars worth of methamphetamine by federal agents.
Over 150 Pounds of Crystal Methamphetamine is Seized in Manhattan: Two Men from Southern California Arrested
— NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor (@snpnyc) July 11, 2022
Read full press release?? https://t.co/DwDaUXC6kg pic.twitter.com/dnktX4yfA3
The two suspects — smuggling some 165 pounds of meth in a suitcase and air compressor canisters — were smuggling the drugs to New York after they made their way across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the prosecutor's release. But after being apprehended as part of a inter-agency working group's investigation, they were released on "supervision" under New York's bail laws.
That's thanks to the left's supposed "reform" work on incarceration, meaning the two men with no ties to New York other than to sell drugs were quickly returned to the street. The more than 150 pounds of meth the suspects were caught with while attempting to make deliveries somehow, under the New York law, just wasn't enough to keep the cartel members locked up. The two suspects are a picture-perfect example of a flight risk, but of course to those who indulge the "progressive prosecutor" movement, it's all fine in the name of social justice, or whatever.
As the prosecutor's release explains, "[m]ethamphetamine is categorized as a controlled substance, but not a narcotic drug. Regardless of the amount of methamphetamine involved, and regardless of a defendant’s lack of connections to New York State, under current law judges may not set bail on cases involving the possession of only methamphetamine."
It makes no sense. In the left's warped view of "compassion," suspects like those nabbed with 165 pounds of meth are released to continue doing who-knows-what while also sending the message that trafficking meth is basically a free for all in the Empire State. That message has clearly made it through to cartels and the drug-fueled underworld.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino is quoted in the special narcotics prosecutor's release noting, “methamphetamine is running rampant throughout the country, causing addiction, overdoses and poisonings," much like fentanyl and the other deadly drugs streaming across Biden's open border and making their way from city to city at the hands of smugglers like the alleged ones making headlines in New York.
https://t.co/1wGTKVV2Cs pic.twitter.com/X9jQQEpSPK
— DEANewYork (@DEANEWYORKDiv) July 11, 2022
In the Big Apple alone, Tarentino noted, DEA seizures of meth are up 1,300% since last year. He called the exploitation of woke laws and soft-on-crime Democrats by Mexican cartels "calculated treachery...to flood the United States with their poison and expand their customer base while driving addiction and increasing profit margins."
The full release from New York City's Special Narcotics Prosecutor can be viewed below:
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