[Crime] Report on Trafficked Goods Causes Stir

Report on Trafficked Goods Causes Stir

Stockholm, SWEDEN - A new report compiled by the Eurasian Reconstruction Oversight Commission (EROC) has uncovered what it calls “an alarming increase in Citadel-routed contraband.”

Due to be released over the next few days, the EROC report is part of a series of eagerly-awaited releases on the current status of Earth’s rebuilding, though the data already has many people concerned. Highlights include “low quality and substandard medicinal supplies, not tailored for human consumption” and “faulty equipment, likely stolen from salvage.” In many cases, water purification equipment purchased caused further problems, as some users reported internal bleeding, seizures, and cases of birth defects.

“Possibly the biggest surprise was that the people ordering this contraband believe everything to be legal and in order,” said Anders Bennett, a speaker for the EROC. “It appears this is part of a far larger movement of goods than previously thought. Almost all parties we could locate were similarly ignorant on these products' origins, and while some third-party groups appear to be working in unison, many of these these products also have some connection to the Citadel.”

Most worrisome about the report are the records of “large quantities of illicit goods,” ranging from illegal drugs to military hardware, much of which was confirmed as "extraterrestrial" during the last six months. Additionally, many of these goods have already fallen into Earth’s rebuilding criminal element, as several weapons from the hostage crisis in Minsk two months ago may have been a part of the ring.

Maria Sayder, mother of two children who are currently hospitalized due to a reaction to a fraudulent medi-gel product, had this to say: “We cannot trust any of the medicine we bring in. We aren’t like the major population centers that can brag about having aliens around to make everything better. We’re relying on what we can acquire, and we are being cheated. It’s time for someone to step in and fix this. I don’t even care if they’re human.”

Both SATAE and Citadel Security have declined to comment at this time.

And now I remember why my job is so important.

I'm just going to pop in and say this now while I still can:

I have absolutely nothing to do with this.

Keelah...what a horrible discovery. Stubble if your work involves stopping this sort of thing from happening, thank you. Faulty medical supplies and purification equipment...I wonder how many people have such things and haven't discovered it yet.

Stubble? That's going to stick now isn't it... Thanks Bucket.
Anyway, yeah... We are less likely to check on Purification equipment since most of ours is made within our own country (A century of constantly being given the things as charity, then that stopping means eventually you build your own.) So those are mostly exports. Sorry if our Kenyan water purifiers have killed you people :/

These poor ... people. To be cheated by counterfeit and ... dangerous products when they were in their greatest ... need. I almost ... wish I could have been ... there. Detecting defective ... merchandise was part of what I did at Elkoss Combine before the ... war. Perhaps my skills could have been ... used to prevent many of these terrible ... injuries.

But this is most likely all just ... wishful thinking on my part. I am certain the local ... authorities already had someone like ... me. It is ... unlikely my presence would have ... helped.

Thank you ... Mombosa for your work preventing more of these ... atrocities from happening. All consumers should be able to feel ... safe with the products they purchase.

This must stop. If someone gets injured while we're working, it would be nice to know that we're not potentially hurting them more by using medigel.

Mercifully, my area's water purifier appears to be fine-at least no one has gotten sick that I know of and SATAE engineers have inspected it. We haven't been so lucky with our medical supplies.

skhash hate those scammer people. skhash keeps running into them.

Only good thing about them is they tend to be fat.

I hope it sticks, I am fond of it already.
I have not heard of any problems among quarians with purification equipment on the Citadel...yet. I cannot say the same for other inhabitants on, but I will be following this story closely. I am positive that with this report, experts are already stepping forward and volunteering to examine the purification equipment...I hope...improper health care products and systems are a very scary thing, not just for people like myself who rely on such things daily. I will do my part to inspect equipment in the Tayseri ward if I am allowed.

Do you find yourself stumbling upon substandard and dysfunctional smuggled goods often, Stubble? If so what is your most common find?

Dammit. It shows just how bad off we still are when the center of galactic civilization has been reduced to a way-point for contraband to the home-world of one of its member governments. We still gotta long way to go.

If you ask me, C-SEC needs to start liaising more with law enforcement planet-side. We haven't done that near enough as we should have been in the last two years. Too many people just seem to keep forgetting we're not in the middle of the Widow Nebula anymore. That, and we need more officers and better equipment; but we've been needing both of those for years now. Sigh.

Hmmm... Most of our contraband is spacey in origin. So I suppose greater ties with the Citadel would improve it. Plus, I'm sure a lot of contraband that ends up on the Citadel is Earthborn in nature. Would mean less guns on the Citadel and less "Unfit for human consumation" goods on Earth.
But no one likes working with another department, I'd sure as heck hate working with C-Sec. But perhaps it would be for the greater good.
And to answer bucket's question, the most common shit caught is either Alcohol (Banned from importing into Kenya at the moment. No one knows why, Kenyan stuff tastes like horse piss) and People attempting to smuggle Animals and animal based goods out of Kenya (This includes rare pets, Ivory or furs).
And of course, the normal stuff like Drugs and the odd weapons.

It's so cute when you guys overreact.

Yeah, okay, a few dealers are moving some broken resyc units, water filtration devices, and some old bandages through the Citadel. No big deal. You still have a centralized security force that isn't too corrupt to deal with it, and it sounds like they are. But a few old medkits and a handful of broken terraforming equipment isn't going to make the Citadel a crime haven overnight, so loosen your panties and accept it as part of the post-war economy; everybody's trying to rebuild their little section of heaven, and there's always someone willing to profit off that.

When you guys get reports that an entire neighborhood's been killed in the crossfire of a gang war that started over a crate of eezo, or half the people on the lower wards get lung infections because of a bad batch of huff going around, or a million-credit bounty's posted on some weapons dealer for using recycled heat clips, then you guys can start worrying about the Citadel. In the meantime, enjoy the fact that people seem to care enough to report on it.

Ok this, this right there. Why is every cop like that? It's crazy! How many thousands of criminals benefit because you guys hate working with each other?

All right. You ever seen a cop show? You know, when departments work together, it means shit is serious. Tensions are high, we're under pressure to solve something quickly, we are working with people we don't know, who do things in ever so slightly yet noticable ways.
All this adds up to a lot of anger and stress. And, I assume, that we connect working with other departments means dealing with so really annoying stuff.
Basically, we do stuff our way, they do it theirs, when we mix and results are expected soon, it annoys us.

It's a rivalry thing. They see us as something resembling a federal agency, and jurisdiction issues pop up.

At the end of the day, I could care less about what department I'm working with as long as the punks get busted. I've never really cared about who gets the credit or any of that shit; that's why it's taken me as long as it has to get to Captain. So I say, bring on the interdepartmental love-fest. I just want to take down the bad guys. Is that too much to ask?