This came to mind earlier today, and I looked for the citations on this idea specifically (that the bar they worked at was involved in counterfeiting) but couldn’t find anything beyond a rogue 4chan post. This doesn’t seem right, as I remember far more discussion about this issue than that failed search would indicate...
Has this been memory holed or am I misremembering some anon’s guesswork?
Floyd took something out of his pocket when he was sitting handcuffed and tossed it on the sidewalk, one of the cops picked it up, but what it was didn't make it into the report. It seems to support that Floyd knew the cops, hiding stuff for him. Someone was filming walking around the middle of the street the whole time, very suspicious behavior IMO. One of the bar owners was a woman from La Raza, the neighborhood is mostly Somali, I don't think they've tracked down the counterfeit source. Speculation was it came from China with the fentanyl Floyd ODed on, and was being laundered at the bars or the market. A large amount of counterfeits had been found in customs CA from China at time, so it seems like a reasonable chance to be true, but nothing was ever proven about any of it.
There was big money promoting the death, Floyd's artwork was put in vinyl on bus stops in London within 3 days of the death while the riots were still taking place. It seemed like the hype was preplanned.