The Dope-Mobile
Vatican Car Has Cocaine and CannabisFour kilograms of cocaine and 200g of cannabis were found in a Vatican car with diplomatic plates. The car was issued to 91-year-old Argentinean cardinal Jorge Mejia, emeritus librarian at the Vatican. He had retired back in 2003 and had since been bedridden after a heart attack.
The cardinal's secretary had asked two Italian men to drive the car for its annual maintenance. However, the men drove to Spain, bought the drugs and hoped to elude the police since they were travelling with the diplomatic plates, French media reports.
French officials seized the car on Sunday at a toll in Chambery in the French Alps. The men had no Vatican diplomatic passport and therefore has no form of connection with the Vatican. Through Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican confirmed that the car belongs to the institution, and it had been seized in France containing illegal drugs with it. And, as both men were Italian citizens, not from the Vatican City State, and neither staff at The Vatican. The Holy See is, therefore, free from any liability and any malice arising from the incident. This contradicts other media reports that The Vatican was ashamed about the controversy. There had been no further reports about the identity of the two Italian men implicated in the incident.
Pope Francis is reportedly friends with Mejia. Both are fellow Argentineans. He even visited Mejia in the hospital two days after being elected as the new pope.
"Cardinal Mejia is not well and obviously has nothing to do with this. It's now up to the police to pursue their investigations," Lombardi told The Telegraph.
Pope Francis had always been vocal about his objection of illegal drugs. In June, he referred to drug addiction as "evil" and had called against the legalisation of drugs. He made this remark in the wake of reports that several US states had legalized the use of marijuana and campaign had been on-going for its medical use.
Speaking in a drug enforcement conference in Rome, the Pope underlined that he rejects every type of drug use. He expressed his disappointment about the rampant drug trafficking that grew by the day because of "a deplorable commerce which transcends national borders."
Ruh-roh, Raggy.
I'm not sure what's more deplorable here... that the Vatican, on some level, had been implicated in running drugs over national borders, or that the beloved mate-sipping pontiff "rejects every type of drug use" and is throwing his weight around to obstruct sane drug policies in countries that desperately need it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Raggy" -> 
Two things to be learned from Scooby Doo: 1) ghosts never did it, and 2) Great Danes have difficulty with the /s/ phoneme.
Mate is the national drink of Argentina. A kind of tea brewed from yerba leaves, it can be quite refreshing. It also contains caffeine. A drug.
Pure class. It's just that kind of thing that makes this a welcoming and intellectually diverse forum.
and....
watch - It's unfuckingbelievable!
You've been punked.
in order to traffic in illegal products.
I am with you 100% and sincerely hope that none of your vehicles are ever intercepted for this purpose.
Of Jeff Spicolli and Anthony Edwards falling out of the VW bus
No shirts, no shoes, no dice dude!
Oh, yeah. He makes the Zetas and Templarios tremble in their Guccis.
Between the OP's attempt to imply a drug smuggling ring operated under the auspices of an Evil Cardinal and another poster's gullible offering of satire as news, I hereby nominate them for the Silliest Thread of the Year Award.
as is the pope!
And don't even get me started on those that send them mail.
