The economy is bad and gas prices are up, but here's how you can beat it!...
Until midnight Wednesday, January 6, you can get a $250 Visa gas card shipped via Fedex, all you have to do is answer a couple of yes/no shopping questions.
Use your $250 gas card at any gas station to:
"I am a mother of 3. We spend over $300 a month on gas. Thank you for giving us a break this month by helping us lighten our gas bills!" -Rick F., Utah
In a wide-reaching sting operation known as Operation Black Gold Rush that began before dawn Tuesday, officers from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration conducted arrest raids and searches in cities all across the country. Agents searched for up to 150 people-half of them illegal immigrants-and by early afternoon, 131 people had been arrested from Charleston, SC, to Los Angeles. Senior drug enforcement officials said that the arrests stemmed from 10 federal indictments and state charges.
The announcement of the arrests came during an afternoon news conference held in Washington, D.C. by Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher and deputy DEA administrator Michele Leonhart. Officials said that the drug ring offered home delivery of heroin to people who called and ordered it through a sophisticated corporate-type structure. The raids were carefully planned by federal agents, in cooperation with state and local police, to take down the ring's entire U.S. distribution system, from regional sales directors down to street-level dealers.
The ring grew its own poppies and refined them in Mexico. Using couriers on foot or in vehicles, the gang smuggled heroin across the U.S.-Mexican border, mostly in Arizona, where they were met by money handlers who purchased the heroin. Couriers would then take the money back to Mexico by purchasing a clunker vehicle and hiding the cash throughout the car's body, driving across the border, then stripping out the cash and dumping the vehicle.
The heroin trafficked by this drug ring was an unusually pure variety of Mexican black tar heroin. Black tar heroin is a dark and sticky substance that is usually only about 30-40% pure-far below the purity of standard Columbian heroin. But of the more than 37 pounds of black tar heroin seized in Tuesday's raids, some was 85% pure.
The drug ring targeted its operations cleverly, employing common marketing strategies usually associated with fast-food restaurants or grocery stores. Preying on recovering addicts, the gang sent street dealers out to operate outside methadone clinics where addicts receive treatment. Dealers would work the streets from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. selling heroin packaged in balloons. A quarter to half a gram of heroin was packaged in each balloon, and dealers would offer addicts a "buy two, get two free" deal.
For trusted clients, more sophisticated approaches were used. According to evidence gathered via surveillance by DEA agents, the gang distributed telephone numbers that clients could call to order heroin. With the first purchase, the client would come to a parking lot where a courier would be sent to deliver the heroin to the client inside the car. After several sales, when the gang felt a client was trustworthy, clients could call and order delivery of heroin to the front door of their home.
The federal investigation began last November after a single heroin seizure, and agents have collected information and increased their investigation efforts along the way. In all, agents seized more than $380,000 in illegal cash profits from the drug ring, with $260,000 of that amount being seized prior to Tuesday's operation. Arrests were made in Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville, Tenn.; Indianapolis; Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio; Denver, Los Angeles, and Riverside, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; Columbia, Greenville, Charleston, and Florence, S. C. and Phoenix, Ariz.
No arrests were made in Mexico, but the investigation is continuing.