Cocaine and able: drug runners innovate

"The Intelligence" podcast presents a fresh perspective on global events. The first segment explores America's intensified war on illegal drugs, highlighting the ineffectiveness of violent tactics against a globalized and innovative narcotics trade. It details the specialization, subcontracting, and innovation within the drug business, including cultivation, transportation, and money laundering, noting the shift towards Chinese money laundering groups and the use of cryptocurrencies. The second segment discusses the increasing disappearances of Chinese business leaders into the Liujia detention system, an extrajudicial form of imprisonment, as part of an expanding anti-corruption campaign affecting business sentiment and potentially contributing to a rise in suicides among business people. Finally, the podcast covers the audacious theft of French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, questioning the security measures in place and the likelihood of recovering the stolen items, while also noting the surprisingly common occurrence of museum thefts.