[pinkybanana]

> they don't expend much time investigating "small" crimes and their definition of small is surprisingly large to the average person.

On the other crime types, for example drug related, law enforcement seems to pay a lot attention to the small-time criminals.

[decremental]

Drug-related offenses are often that of possession. It's not hard to investigate possession and it's not like the cops are going to ignore the gram of coke they just found in your pocket.

[michaelmrose]

A lot of legwork and resources are expended to shake down enough members of society to come across that gram of coke, prosecute, and incarcerate.

The cost of prosecution could trivially run into thousands of dollars including public defenders the cost of incarceration 36k per year.

A 5 year stint could run the people almost 200k to punish someone for hurting themselves by hurting them worse.

[Scoundreller]

> it's not like the cops are going to ignore the gram of coke they just found in your pocket.

Why not? Seems like a waste of time and $. If they get the $50k or $650k back, they at least have a chance at civil forfeiture.

[wil421]

How are the cops going to catch someone in Russia, China, Iran, NK, or any of the other countries who turn a blind eye to cyber crime schemes? I doubt they will even be able to find a single person to arrest much less a real identity.

Drugs are right there in front of the cops most of the time.