Final Word from Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Harry Bosch, one of the world's best-known (fictional) detectives, says there is no such thing as a coincidence. When two seemingly unrelated events have related outcomes, he looks for the link. When Czech customs agents announce on Feb. 12 that they seized 3 tons of methamphetamine precursors on flights from China in Dec., suspicious minds wonder why no arrests were announced. It shouldn't be difficult to trace the destination and intended recipient of 3 tons of illegal chemicals or to determine if this is the first time such a shipment has been made. The $45m value makes this a huge seizure. A Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, is awaiting death in China for smuggling one-thirteenth this weight of crystal meth. Czech Foreign Min. Tomáš Petříček intervened on his behalf in a recent meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Prague. Bosch would think of Huawei and NÚKIB and hypothesize that this drug bust is more about squeezing China than seizing meth. [ Czech Republic cybersecurity Michael Connelly Kč 1bn ]
Glossary of difficult words
meth - the drug methamphetamine;
Harry Bosch - a character of the crime writer Michael Connelly;
precursor - (in this context) a substance from which another is formed, esp. by metabolic reaction;
crystal methamphetamine - the drug methamphetamine in a powdered crystalline form (often known in Czech as pervitin);
to hypothesize - to put forward as a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation;
to squeeze - to put pressure as a way to obtain something from someone.