Maybe Crime Does Pay?

Two crime stories here that are rather surprising. First up is a block of gold weighing 220 pounds. This block was on display at a museum in Japan. But it was unguarded because the museum wanted people to be able to touch it. Of course theives made off with it.

From the AP here:

A group of burglars stole a massive block of gold worth over $2 million from a Japanese museum in a heist that police said could have been prevented — if only the curators hadn’t left the showcases wide open.

The Ohashi Collection Kan museum in Takayama, kept the 220-pound gold bullion unguarded by sensors or even by a case because it wanted visitors to be able to touch it, local police officer Shinji Kurake said Monday.

On Sunday, three masked men made off with the gold block in broad daylight, Kurake said. In today’s gold prices, the block would be worth about $2.1 million.

Next up is evidence that the Meth trade in the United States is worth big bucks. A Mexican gang was running huge meth operations out of Mexico city. They were stuffing all of their cash in their dressers, closets, pantries, cigar boxes, etc. When the place was raided, they stacked all of the cash up. All 206 Million bucks worth. Wow.

From Reuters here:

Police have found $206 million in cash, belonging to drug smugglers who imported chemicals used to make methamphetamines, piled inside a mansion in a wealthy Mexico City neighborhood.

Police arrested seven people at the house. They found wads of hundreds of dollars stuffed in drawers, suitcases and closets around the house.

Mexican producers of methamphetamine are muscling in on the U.S. market as police crack down on labs in the United States, according to a recent report by the U.S. Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center.

Following the U.S. crackdown, so-called superlabs that mass produce methamphetamine have relocated to Mexico, where precursor chemicals like ephedrine are more easily available.