Narco-Dollars For Dummies (Part 6)
How The Money Works In The Illicit Drug Trade
Part 6 in a 13 Part Series
First published in the Narco News Bulletin
EARLIER PARTS TO THIS SERIAL...
Part 1 - Narco Dollars For Dummies
Part 2 - Sam & Dave Do White Substances
Part 3 - The Ultimate New Business Cold Call
Part 4 - On Your Map
Part 5 - Getting Out of Narco Dollars HQ
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Georgie, West Philadelphia and the Stock Market
One of my new homes is in the city in Philadelphia, near where I grew up in West Philadelphia. Another is in a very
beautiful and close knit farming community in Hickory Valley, Tennessee where my father's family has lived since the
1850's.
Once a month I drive to Philadelphia from my home in Hickory Valley to attend a board meeting. I stay in a lovely little
apartment in the first floor of a row house owned by my friend Georgie.
Georgie is one of my favorite people in the world. She lives in the apartment on the second floor. Just about my
favorite thing in the world is hanging out with Georgie. We watch Oprah, we talk, we go to movies, and we giggle over
ice cream with long names and cookies. Georgie is an awesome cook and my little apartment fills up daily with the smells
of something delicious that Georgie is making.
One day, Forest, my dog, and I were up in Georgie's apartment to enjoy a fresh plate of scrapple that Georgie had fried
up that morning. The conversation turned to narco dollars. Georgie said that looking at the big picture was simply too
overwhelming. Couldn't I explain this without using the words millions or billions - just dollars and cents in terms of
our neighborhood in West Philadelphia?
I always have this problem explaining international money flows to moms and grandmoms. Most really great women want to
know about the real world. The world of real people - her world full of her kids and grandkids and other kids she loves.
So we got out a blank piece of paper and started to estimate.
Every day there are two or three teenagers on the corner dealing drugs across from our home in Philadelphia. We figured
that if they had a 50% deal with a supplier, did $300 a day of sales each, and worked 250 days a year that their
supplier could run his net profits of approximately $100,000 through a local fast food restaurant that was owned by a
publicly traded company.
Assuming that company has a stock market value that is a multiple of 20-30 times its profits, a handful of illiterate
teenagers could generate approximately $2-3 million in stock market value for a major corporation, not to mention a nice
flow of deposits and business for the Philadelphia banks and insurance companies.
(continues...)
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...come back tomorrow for Part 7 of Narco-Dollars for Dummies...
- AUTHOR NOTE: Catherine Austin Fitts, author of Scoop's "The Real Deal" column, is a former managing director and
member of the board of directors of Dillon Read & Co, Inc, a former Assistant Secretary of Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner in the first Bush Administration, and the
former President of The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. She is the President of Solari, Inc, an investment advisory
firm. Solari provides risk management services to investors through Sanders Research Associates in London.
Anti©opyright Solari 2002