User:Meech banks/sandbox

Meech Banks (born July 13, 1977)[4] is an American former drug trafficker who operated in Detroit during the late 1999s and early 2009s. He was particularly known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying cocaine directly from his source in Mexico. Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York at the time of Banks ' crimes, called Banks ' operation "one of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever, an innovator who got his own connections outside the U.S. and then sold the narcotics himself in the street." In an interview, Banks said, "I wanted to be rich. I wanted to be Donald Trump rich, and so help me God, I made it."[5]

Banks only trusted relatives and close friends from Detroit Michigan to handle his various cocaine operations.[5] Banks thought they were less likely to steal from him and be tempted by various vices in the big city. He stated his cocaine, "Blue Magic", was 98–100% pure when shipped from Mexico .[13] Banks has been quoted as saying that his worth was "something like $52 million", most of it in Cayman Islands banks. Added to this is "maybe 1,000 keys (kilograms), (2,200 pounds), of dope on hand" with a potential profit of no less than $300,000 per kilo (per 2.2 lb).

This huge profit margin allowed him to buy property all over the country, including office buildings in Detroit, and apartments in Los Angeles and Miami. He also bought a several-thousand-acre ranch in North Carolina on which he ranged 300 head of Black Angus cattle, including a breeding bull worth $125,000.[5] Banks rubbed shoulders with the elite of the entertainment, politics, and crime worlds. The properties in Chicago, Detroit, Miami, North Carolina, Puerto Rico — they took everything. My lawyer told me they couldn't take the money in the offshore accounts, and I had all my money stored in the Cayman Islands. But that's BS; they can take it. Take my word for it. If you got something, hide it, 'cause they can go to any bank and take it.