Is There an Underground Economy Where You Live?

VintageBetter

VintageBetter

Senior Member
In other words, if you wanted to buy a fake I.D., drugs, or find someone to carry out criminal activity, do you know where to look for that? Or do you think you could find out if you searched the local news archives?

In my case, yup. Lots of Dark Money in my area. I have never had the need to ask for any of the things listed above, but even I know where the deals are done.

This morning there was a weather story about a couple who had lived in Delaware for the past 40 years or so, nice brick house surrounded by trees and green grass, and I felt so envious of them having gotten to live there their whole lives, with seasons, and maybe even some societal sanity in their region. Or maybe not. Cannot know a place, really, until you have lived there a couple of years.

I just wonder - do they live in a region with an underground economy and lots of gang activity? Maybe they do. The gangs are everywhere.
 

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A few years ago, in an nearby upscale development, the cops raided a meth lab in a nice home. I'm quite sure if I were a user, I'd know the local dealer. I don't care where you live, if you ordered an item using Amazon Prime, and you called your dealer for drugs; the drugs would be delivered way before FedEx arrived with your item.
 
TheOtherRick said:
I live in one of the active meth hives there's tons of dark money here.
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Same here, meth freaks everywhere. A few years ago 3 vape shops and 2 massage parlors popped up in our small desert town, seemingly overnight. Several legitimate businesses are owned by outlaw biker gangs.. I wouldn't think of getting involved with these crooks, once you do you're one of them, and they have their hooks in you.
 
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One of my brothers-in-law had an uncle from his Italian side of the family who lived in New York and had what seemed to be a traditionally low-paying job, but the uncle had a new Cadillac every couple of years and his wife had minks and expensive jewelry.

He said that this uncle was the one you went to when a traffic ticket needed "fixing" or you had trouble getting a permit to add on a room to your house or your kid got expelled from school. "Uncle Guido" could make your problems "go away".

I met him once. Heck of a pleasant old guy but he definitely had "connections".....
 
I have no clue though I'm not saying it isn't around here. Those activities just aren't the 4th largest employer here as they are in big cities. It would be pretty rare to see some guys selling stuff out of a truck at steep discounts here, where that seems to be just one more "retail" option in some places.

I suppose if I lived in a s***hole like that I might be down on "America" too, thinking that I lived there.
 
JBR said:
Even very small communities of, say, 500 residents can have a few petty criminals. Larger communities, of course, tend to have more... and maybe a higher proportion. And in cities, the criminal network can be much more elaborate, and even sophisticated.

That reality has travelled with humanity through time.
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IDK about traveling through time. Airplanes and the Internet have made a vast difference in how quickly people communicate and can ship things to one another.

But I do agree women (and probably children) have been sex trafficked since ancient times. The World’s Oldest Profession.
 
If I wanted to get meth it would probably be easier to find that over buying a pair of jeans that fit me at a local store. I haven't tried though. There are many flea markets that are open on weekends and I'm guessing that if I bought something from a few of the vendors that I might be contributing to the "underground" economy. Same if I bought something from the marketplace on FB. I've never bought anything on the marketplace on FB but red flags go up for me when I see that someone is selling a brand new boxed laptop for a price that is much lower than it's value.
 
I was a U.S. Atty for 37 years. Yeah, I know the fixers. I may not know them all, but enough that I could put together a small Army.

Actually, our title was Assistant United States Attorneys or (AUSA's). I never figured out why they shipped us around so often. I asked a few times, but got answers that made no sense.
 
VintageBetter said:
IDK about traveling through time. Airplanes and the Internet have made a vast difference in how quickly people communicate and can ship things to one another.

But I do agree women (and probably children) have been sex trafficked since ancient times. The World’s Oldest Profession.
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Your emphasis seems to be on serious crime... maybe especially crime with victims? Your focus seems to be on organized crime, with street gangs being the lowest level. So far as I know, in Canada there's very little of that until sizable cities are considered.
 
JBR said:
Your emphasis seems to be on serious crime... maybe especially crime with victims? Your focus seems to be on organized crime, with street gangs being the lowest level. So far as I know, in Canada there's very little of that until sizable cities are considered.
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I don't quite understand what you are saying. Are you saying that Canada has no gang problems?
 
JBR said:
Your emphasis seems to be on serious crime... maybe especially crime with victims? Your focus seems to be on organized crime, with street gangs being the lowest level. So far as I know, in Canada there's very little of that until sizable cities are considered.
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Just one more reason why Canada is superior to the U.S.

We know, we know and yes, we do feel envy. I will really have to visit that place more often, someday.
 
MarkinPhx said:
If I wanted to get meth it would probably be easier to find that over buying a pair of jeans that fit me at a local store. I haven't tried though. There are many flea markets that are open on weekends and I'm guessing that if I bought something from a few of the vendors that I might be contributing to the "underground" economy. Same if I bought something from the marketplace on FB. I've never bought anything on the marketplace on FB but red flags go up for me when I see that someone is selling a brand new boxed laptop for a price that is much lower than it's value.
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From what I have read people reporting on Reddit, Facebook Marketplace is overflowing with scams. Another quality product brought to us by Meta.
 
Born_To_Lose said:
I don't quite understand what you are saying. Are you saying that Canada has no gang problems?
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Not at all. Montreal (in "Central Canada") is well known for having a Mafia element. Vancouver and Calgary are known for gang activity. New-model car theft happens to some degree in Vancouver, and no doubt in other cities too.

It's that many Canadian cities are smallish, by U.S, standards, as are many Canadian towns, and there isn't much crime organization (other than channels for drug distribution) in them. An example of where it can exist is Kelowna, a BC city of about 240k population. Hells Angels established a club house there, and organized channels for drug trafficking in the BC Interior, then invested money in legit businesses in Kelowna. (That's info I got from a city government employee).

But in my understanding Kelowna's situation isn't common. Of course, smaller communities can have some direct or rather indirect connections of that sort with such gangs, via the pattern of drug distribution.
 
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JBR said:
Not at all. Montreal (in "Central Canada") is well known for having a Mafia element. Vancouver and Calgary are know for gang activity. New-model car theft happens to some degree in Vancouver, and no doubt in other cities too.

It's that many Canadian cities are smallish, by U.S, standards, as are many Canadian towns, and there isn't much crime organization (other than channels for drug distribution) in them. An example of where it can exist is Kelowna, a BC city of about 240k population. Hells Angels established a club house there, and organized channels for drug trafficking in the BC Interior, then invested money in legit businesses in Kelowna. (That's info I got from a city government employee).

But in my understanding Kelowna's situation isn't common. Of course, smaller communities can have some direct or rather indirect connections of that sort with such gangs, via the pattern of drug distribution.
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Don't forget Hamilton/Niagara and Toronto
 
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GoneFishin said:
Lots of gang activity in the cities and some rural areas
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I am a little more curious about the gangs, or specifically the types of gangs. Are they like organized crime, which would pit them in the Mafia element, are they any gangs that are strictly nationality type, for example--Asian, Latin, etc.? Motorcycle gangs? Gangs formed by young people for the sake of causing harm to others, including setting fires and other civil disturbances?

If you don't care to answer, I understand.
 

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