365个英语小故事 第168期：The Drugs Keep Coming
Because it won't decriminalize drugs, the US government allows drug dealers to make billions of dollars annually. The government continues to pursue and arrest millions of marijuana and cocaine users every year. The government says that marijuana and cocaine are so dangerous and addictive that they must remain illegal. However, it has long legalized alcohol and tobacco, two products which kill hundreds of thousands of Americans annually. Meanwhile, because millions of Americans continue to use marijuana and cocaine daily, their purchases are making drug dealers filthy rich.
How rich are they? Local police recently stumbled upon two privately owned submarines, containing 500 pounds of cocaine, in a harbor in Colombia. Colombia supplies 90 percent of America’s cocaine. The submarines can carry five tons of drugs to Mexico, where the cargo travels by truck into the US. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials believe that the Colombian drug lords possess about 20 of these 55-foot subs. However, they are confident they will find all of them.
Reportedly, drug lords have also purchased a Russian cannon that can fire a 2-ton shell 500 miles. The cannon, now hidden in Mexico, will be used to fire 2-ton packages of cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs into southeast New Mexico, where drug lords have secretly bought thousands of acres of desert land. The packages will land in the desert, undetected by US radar. Once they land safely among the cactuses and scorpions, the packages will be stored underground. The drug lords are building a huge complex of tunnels and storage space under the New Mexico desert. The tunnels will connect to truck routes for transporting drugs to major cities. A DEA official said that even if the cannon and tunnels exist, it just proves that DEA is winning the war on drugs.
