The American dream is being shredded one after the other, making survival the only choice. 22 million Americans call mobile home parks, commonly called ‘trailer parks, ‘ their home for a reason. It’s the only affordable housing that exists anymore for those who are on the brink of homelessness. However, affordable housing, which was the foundation of the American real estate market, has found a new landlord who is ruthless and greedy.

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The new landlords are none other than the private equity firms who have moved into the real-estate industry acquiring large amounts of land and renting them out to trailer parks. Rents at trailer parks have shot up 60% this year and could spike further in the coming years. Mobile home residents are being ruthlessly evicted for failing to meet the new rental demands by equity firms. The equity firms have been cruel to the residents making the American dream live only on paper.

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The American Dream Is History, Survival Now Takes Centerstage

The corporation is putting profits ahead against the safety, welfare, and affordability of the trailer park residents. The conglomerates have demanded extra rent by a minimum of $200 to a maximum of $1,500 a month. The private businesses are buying several acres of land and spiking rents by more than 50% without being considerate. “There is no American dream anymore, there’s only survival,” said a resident to the More Perfect Union YouTube channel.

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Around 12 institutional investors have purchased 1,200 mobile home parks in the last three years. Wall Street investors, private equity firms, and hedge funds have realized the massive potential for returns in the real-estate sector. Only the institutional investors are living the American dream by squeezing what’s left from the poor and downtrodden. Many other institutional corporations are on a land-buying spree and the situation could only worsen in the coming years.

Former Olympian snowboarder Ryan James Wedding has been charged in a cocaine trafficking ring that allegedly used stablecoin Tether (USDT) to run billion-dollar deals. The US Attorney’s Office, Central District of California has charged Wedding and 15 other defendants for shipping kilograms of cocaine through Mexico and into the United States and Canada.

US authorities say Wedding and co-conspirators used USDT for payments with QR codes sent to drug runners for crypto transfers. The DOJ has seized over $3.2 million in crypto, over 1 ton of cocaine, firearms, and hundreds of thousands in cash during the investigation.

Ex-Olympian’s drug empire exposed

As per the DOJ’s release, Ryan James Wedding has been charged in a 16-count superseding indictment for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking operation. He is now residing in Mexico and was previously charged with operating criminal activities, murder, and smuggling cocaine. However, one of his counterparts Andrew Clark was arrested on October 8 in Mexico while Wedding remains a fugitive.

It mentioned that the superseding indictment was unsealed on October 16 which named 14 additional co-defendants. The complaint alleged that the former Olympic snowboarder conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine from Southern California to Canada with others.

He used a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte from around January 2024 to August 2024. It added that the cocaine shipments were moved from Mexico to the Los Angeles area.

$25M in cocaine and $3.2M in crypto seized

The law enforcement authorities have seized more than one ton of cocaine, three firearms, and over 10 rounds of ammunition with $255,400 in United States currency. They also grabbed more than $3.2 million in crypto, making this case even more striking.

Wedding and others had already delivered 293 kgs of cocaine to representatives of Ratte and Singh for distribution over Canada in March 2024. In the following month, they tried to deliver more than 375 kgs of the drugs but this time investigators interrupted the operation.

The complaint highlighted that the defendants held around 1,800 kilograms (1.8 metric tons) of cocaine. It has a street value of between $23.4 million and $25.2 million in Los Angeles.

United States Attorney Martin Estrada stated that the Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is charged with leading a transnational organized crime group engaging in drug trafficking and murder. Meanwhile, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for any information leading to his arrest.