Classic Example of Our Govt Failing at One of Jobs They're Actually Supposed to Do

Taken from the A1 article in the WSJ today, which didn't bother to note how outrageous it is that the way this guy got caught was when an employee pawned a frickin' company laptop:

Tangled Web
For Entrepreneur,
Online Drug Sales
Meant Fast Profits

Mr. Kolowich Smuggled Pills
From Mexico, Then India;
A Big Hit With Viagra

FBI Gets Clues From a Laptop

By HEATHER WON TESORIERO
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 30, 2005; Page A1

In a couple of weeks, Mr. Kolowich says, he had procured the anti-impotence pills from Tijuana, Mexico, where they could easily be obtained without a prescription. He started selling the pills to United Kingdom buyers on a rudimentary Web site, which later became known as WorldExpressRx.com.

Of course, I have no idea why the government is involved with the distribution and prescribing of medicine (tell me again where the Constitution lays out the right of the government to regulate medicine...), but regardless, IT IS ILLEGAL to sell these pills without a prescription. More to the point, he's circumventing and undercutting the property rights (in this case, patent rights) of the drug companies (of whom, of course, I am no fan!). Regardless, the people running these illegal Internet companies -- which are the root of much of the spam that is draining the developed world's producitivity -- are criminals, usually in more than these drug-circumventing ways (if I may extrapolate from the many cases when the regulators bother to catch these guys):

Eventually, Mr. Kolowich was arrested for importing and selling counterfeit drugs, mail fraud and money laundering.

But the amazing thing in this story is simply how they caught the guy:

Mr. Kolowich's fate took a turn when a former employee of his firm happened to pawn a laptop. Law-enforcement agents familiar with the case say a person hired by the pawn shop to do the routine cleaning of the computer's hard drive notified authorities after discovering images of pills and other WorldExpressRx.com documents. That triggered an FBI investigation. According to the criminal complaint, law-enforcement agents also made several undercover purchases from Mr. Kolowich's site.

I mean, what century are these regulators in? Do they not get the same 8023 spam emails a day begging them to click on a link that takes them straight to the criminal's site? How hard can it be to simply click and then go after the guys dealing this stuff? They had to get a call from a goober IT guy at some random pawn shop in order to get a clue?

Yeah, but thank goodness they gave me a ticket last month for not wearing my seatbelt. Thanks for protecting me, gubt!