War on illegal drugs

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Fearless W gonna freeze their assets...

U.S. gov't to freeze Mexican drug cartel's assets
Dec. 12, 2007 -- The U.S. White House announced on Wednesday the U.S. government will freeze the assets of a Mexican drug organization to demonstrate its commitment to security cooperation with Mexico and struggle against drug trafficking.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 23 individuals and 19 businesses throughout Mexico for serving as front companies for Mexico's Sinaloa drug organization, the White House said in a statement. The Sinaloa drug organization is considered as Mexico's most powerful cartel.

"With the designation, the United States is exposing and sanctioning a principal money laundering organization and attacking the financial underpinnings of the Sinaloa drug organization," it said.

During a visit by President George W. Bush to Mexico in March, a Joint U.S.-Mexico Communique was signed in Merida that outlines ways for two countries to crack down on narcotics trafficking. With an aim at halting narcotics across the border, Bush has asked Congress for 500 million U.S. dollars for counter narcotics efforts in Mexico.

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Granny says, "Blow `em outta the water with depth charges!"...

Run Silent, Run Drugs: The Cocaine Sub Fleet
December 20, 2007 - Drug traffickers are using a fleet of as many as 20 mini subs to move huge quantities of cocaine through the Caribbean, federal law enforcement and Coast Guard officials tell ABC News.

The cocaine vessels are often harder to detect than Russian submarines because of the way they skim the surface, officials say. "The Russian submarine has a certain signal you can listen to underwater," said Coast Guard Adm. Joseph L. Nimmich, director of Joint Interagency Task Force South, based in Key West, Fla. The cocaine vessels give "very little signal," said the admiral, whose officers are testing a captured sub in order to adjust Coast Guard sensors.

In a report to be aired on "World News With Charles Gibson," officials showed off the recently captured vessel, a semi-submersible that carried 9,000 pounds of pure cocaine. "They started out with four to five tons. The new ones are estimated to carry between 12 to 15 tons of narcotics," Adm. Nimmich said. The vessels are able to travel up to 2,000 miles and evade U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships patrolling the waters between Colombia and the U.S. and Mexico.

U.S. officials say the cocaine trafficking groups actually assemble the vessels in the jungles of Colombia and then truck them to remote ports to be launched. The vessels carry a crew of only two or three and often are purposefully sunk if detected by patrol boats, officials say. The use of the subs comes as U.S. officials say cocaine prices have risen an estimated 45 percent in the last 10 months, a sustained trend that suggests supply is being affected.

More The Blotter: Run Silent, Run Drugs: The Cocaine Sub Fleet

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11 Tons of Opium Discovered in Taliban Town
December 20, 2007 - In some of the strongest evidence to date linking the Taliban with the drug trade, 11 tons of processed opium for heroin production, worth tens of millions of dollars, was discovered by NATO troops when they stormed the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan.

Investigative reporter and author Stephen Grey was the only journalist who accompanied the thousands of Afghan, British and American forces as they took the strategic town last week. Musa Qala was a key stronghold for the Taliban in Afghanistan and has been known to be a major crossroads for the opium trade. NATO troops discovered two sites of opium production that were operating with the blessing of the Taliban government. The troops burned the processed opium last week.

British troops abandoned Musa Qala in October of 2006 after losing seven lives defending a base in the town from waves of Taliban attacks. The Taliban took it over in February of that year. It became one of the few major places in Afghanistan where the Taliban could operate in the open, trying to set up their own local government and courts.

U.S. commanders openly criticized the British-backed handover of Musa Qala. The recapture of the town heals an open wound that undermined claims by NATO that the Taliban were being defeated militarily.

The Blotter: Exclusive: 11 Tons of Opium Discovered in Taliban Town

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Another cache seized...

Afghan police seize 650kg of heroin, opium
January 02, 2008 - AFGHAN police have seized more than half a tonne of heroin and opium in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the interior ministry said.

In the biggest seizure in months, anti-drug police found 400kg of heroin yesterday and detained an armed man linked to the drugs, the ministry said in a statement. It did not give further details. Nearly 250kg of opium - the raw ingredient to make heroin - was seized in a separate raid in the same province, the statement said.

More than 20kg of chemicals used in making heroin were also seized, it added. Afghanistan produces more than 90 per cent of the world's opium. Despite internationally backed efforts to cut the drugs trade, Afghanistan's opium production grew by 34 per cent in 2007, according to a UN survey.

The government says the illicit drug trade fuels the insurgency mainly waged by Taliban militants whose regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001 for sheltering al-Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden.

Afghan police seize more than half tonne of heroin, opium | NEWS.com.au

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Bolivia seizes 431 tons of drugs in 2007
Jan. 1, 2008 -- The Bolivian anti-drug task forces seized some 431 tons of drugs in 10,400 operations throughout 2007,arresting 4,178 suspects, according to news from La Paz.

The drugs included 17 tons of cocaine and 413 tons of marijuana, said an announcement released Tuesday by the Bolivian government.

Last year, the forces destroyed 3,925 drug factories and 6,296 drug pools, confiscating some 1,651 tons of coca leaves used to produce drugs, the announcement said.

Bolivia, located at a drug producing area known as "the Silver Triangle" in South America, is the world's third largest coca producer, after Colombia and Peru, with an annual output of 200 tons of cocaine.

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21,233 arrested for drug trafficking in Costa Rica in 2007
Jan. 1, 2007 -- A total of 21,233 people were arrested for involvement in drug trafficking in 2007, a report by the drug control authorities in the country said Tuesday.

An average of 63 people were arrested daily from Jan. 1 to Dec.5 in 2007 for violating the Narcotics Law, said the report.

However, 95 percent of the arrestees were seized with very small amounts of drugs and it was hard to determine if they were for personal use or for sale. Only 374 people, 280 Costa Ricans and 94 foreigners, were found guilty of distributing and selling drugs.

The police received 176 phone calls with information on the activities of drug dealers, said a chief of the Police Drug Control agency, who withheld his name for security reasons. "I believe the best intelligence work is done by common citizen," he said.

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Researchers Work on Cocaine Vaccine...

Cocaine Vaccine May Provide Addiction Cure
Jan 2, 2008 - Two Houston Researchers Working on Vaccine to Treat People Hooked on Cocaine

Two Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston are working on a cocaine vaccine they hope will become the first-ever medication to treat people hooked on the drug. "For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful," said Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor who is being assisted in the research by his wife, Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist. "At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won't get high and will lose interest."

The vaccine, currently in clinical trials, stimulates the immune system to attack the real thing when it's taken. The immune system unable to recognize cocaine and other drug molecules because they are so small can't make antibodies to attack them. To help the immune system distinguish the drug, Kosten attached inactivated cocaine to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins. In response, the immune system not only makes antibodies to the combination, which is harmless, but also recognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive.

"It's a very clever idea," says David Eagleman, a Baylor neuroscientist. "Scientists have spent the last few decades figuring out reward pathways in the brain and how drugs like cocaine hijack the system. It turns out those pathways are difficult to rewire once they've seen the drug. But the vaccine just circumvents all that." Kosten asked the Food and Drug Administration in December to green-light a multi-institutional trial to begin in the spring and is awaiting a response.

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Mexico fighting drug gangs...

Mexican army battles drug gang near US border
8 Jan 2008, Mexican troops and police shot dead three suspected drug hit-men armed with grenades in a fierce gun battle in a town near the US border on Monday, witnesses and local media said.

Soldiers fought around 20 armed men after being attacked with grenades following a search of a suspected drug safe house in Rio Bravo, across the border from McAllen, Texas, witnesses said.

Mexican media said three gunmen died in the battle and eight soldiers and policemen were injured. Earlier, local media reported at least one policeman was killed. Police confirmed the gun battle in Rio Bravo in the state of Tamaulipas but declined to give more details. "The aggressors threw dozens of grenades and there was a lot of blood on the street. Some civilians were badly hurt and taken to hospital," said local journalist Ely Enriquez.

Many cities in the border area north of the industrial city of Monterrey are overrun by the powerful Gulf drug cartel and its armed wing, the Zetas. Suspected drug gunmen killed a local politician in Rio Bravo in November, turning the quiet agricultural town into a flashpoint in President Felipe Calderon's military assault on drug gangs.

Calderon has mobilized some 25,000 troops and federal police to fight powerful organized crime gangs and drug cartels since he came to power a year ago. He sent 3,000 troops and federal police to Rio Bravo in December following the murder of politician Juan Antonio Guajardo. In 2007, more than 2,500 people were killed nationwide in drug-related murders despite the military clampdown on traffickers.

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Another one bites the dust...

Colombian druglord found dead
Friday, 1 February 2008, Colombia's most-wanted drugs trafficker has been found murdered in a Venezuelan holiday cabin.

Officials confirmed the body is that of Wilber Varela, alias "Soap", a man with a long and bloody history as leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel. While Varela had a $5m (£2.5m) bounty from the US on his head, the evidence suggests he was killed by his own men. His cocaine smuggling cartel was the successor to the infamous Medellin cartel of Pablo Escobar. It is believed that Varela's cartel moved thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the US and Europe.

New recruits

US and Colombian intelligence agencies said that Varela had been hiding in Venezuela for at least a year, running his operations out of their reach. Venezuela is now the principal transit nation for Colombian cocaine and does not co-operate with international anti-drugs efforts. Colombian intelligence sources said that communications intercepts suggested that Varela was killed by some of his own men, a not unexpected end for a man who started in the drug business as an a assassin.

Last year, the other three leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were captured, in effect bringing an end to the organisation. However, a new generation of traffickers is already stepping up to take their place.The security forces have the aliases of two men believed to be picking up the pieces within the cartel and keeping the business moving. They are known only as '06' and 'Red Shirt' and the hunt is on for them and their real identities as a new chapter in the war on drugs begins.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Colombian drugs lord found dead

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2.5 tons of cocaine seized in Liberia
Feb. 2, 2008 -- Liberian authorities have seized nearly 2.5 tons of cocaine, a record seizure for the country, from a ship off the African country's coast, officials said.

Maritime officials in Monrovia said the ship, the Blue Atlantic, was intercepted this week off the Liberian coast and the large drug shipment was allegedly found inside several barrels on board, the BBC reported Saturday.

"It is huge; if this had hit the Liberian market, it would have destroyed the entire country," Monrovia Port Security head Ashford Pearl said of Thursday's record discovery. South American drug cartels are thought to routinely travel along the African coast in their attempts to transport illegal drugs to Europe.

Pearl said the vessel's crew members were all from Uganda and the ship was intercepted in cooperation with a French military vessel. "They arrested the vessel on high seas; it wasn't in the Liberian waters, but they towed it to Liberia because the ship was flying the flag of Liberia," Pearl said.

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Mukasey wantin' to keep the crackheads behind bars...

AG fights release of inmates doing time for crack
6 Feb. `08 WASHINGTON - Mukasey wants to block crack cocaine releases; New federal rules kick in March 3; thousands of inmates could seek freedom

Attorney General Michael Mukasey wants Congress to act within weeks to prevent the release of thousands of violent criminals from federal prison under new crack cocaine sentencing rules. In testimony prepared for a House hearing Thursday, Mukasey indicates a willingness to go along with new sentencing guidelines that reduce federal prison time for crack cocaine convicts — but only for first-time, nonviolent offenders. New U.S. Sentencing Commission rules taking effect in less than a month would let nearly 20,000 federal inmates seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences.

It's unclear, if not unlikely, that Congress would act before the rules take effect. Mukasey, who is to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, said releasing all the inmates eligible under the Sentencing Commission's guidelines could increase violent crime in communities and clog up courts. The Justice Department estimates that two-thirds of federal inmates serving time for crack cocaine also have violent criminal histories or gun charges in their pasts.

"We think it is imperative for Congress to pass legislation to address the Sentencing Commission's decision," Mukasey wrote to the House committee. "I emphasize that we are not asking this committee to prolong the sentences of those offenders who pose the least threat to their communities, such as first-time, nonviolent offenders," Mukasey wrote. The Sentencing Commission's guidelines kick in March 3. About 1,600 federal inmates could be eligible for immediate release.

Retroactive reductions

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Must be somethin' in the water...

Drugs Found in US Drinking Water
Sunday, Mar. 09, 2008 - A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky. Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed. How do the drugs get into the water?

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue. And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

"We recognize it is a growing concern and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. They also surveyed the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

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Drug tyranny on the border...

Drug trade tyranny on the border
Sun., March. 16, 2008 - Mexican cartels maintain grasp with weapons, cash and savagery

The killers prowled through Loma Bonita in the pre-dawn chill. In silence, they navigated a labyrinth of wood shacks at the crest of a dirt lane in the blighted Tijuana neighborhood, police say. They were looking for Margarito Saldaña, an easygoing 43-year-old district police commander. They found a house full of sleeping people. Neighbors quivered at the crack of AK-47 assault rifles blasting inside Saldaña's tiny home. Rafael García, an unemployed laborer who lives nearby, recalled thinking it was "a fireworks show," then sliding under his bed in fear.

In murdering not only Saldaña, but also his wife, Sandra, and their 12-year-old daughter, Valeria, the Loma Bonita killers violated a rarely broken rule of Mexico's drug cartel underworld: Family should remain free from harm. The slayings capped five harrowing hours during which the assassins methodically hunted down and murdered two other police officers and mistakenly killed a 3-year-old boy and his mother. The brutality of what unfolded here in the overnight hours of Jan. 14 and early Jan. 15 is a grim hallmark of a crisis that has cast a pall over the United States' southern neighbor. Events in three border cities over the past three months illustrate the military and financial power of Mexico's cartels and the extent of their reach into a society shaken by fear.

More than 20,000 Mexican troops and federal police are engaged in a multi-front war with the private armies of rival drug lords, a conflict that is being waged most fiercely along the 2,000-mile length of the U.S.-Mexico border. The proximity of the violence has drawn in the Bush administration, which has proposed a $500 million annual aid package to help President Felipe Calderón combat what a Government Accountability Office report estimates is Mexico's $23 billion a year drug trade. A total of more than 4,800 Mexicans were slain in 2006 and 2007, making the murder rate in each of those years twice that of 2005. Law enforcement officials and journalists, politicians and peasants have been gunned down in the wave of violence, which includes mass executions, such as the killings of five people whose bodies were found on a ranch outside Tijuana this month.

Like the increasing number of Mexicans heading over the border in fear, the violence itself is spilling into the United States, where a Border Patrol agent was recently killed while trying to stop suspected traffickers. Drawing on firepower, savage intimidation and cash, the cartels have come to control key parts of the border, securing smuggling routes for 90 percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States, according to the State Department. At the same time, Mexican soldiers roam streets in armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters patrol the skies, and boats ply the coastal waters.

More Drug tyranny on the border - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

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Drug cartels preparin' to invade America...

Drug cartels training near U.S. border
March 30, 2008 -- Mexican drug cartels have conducted military-style training camps in northern Mexico, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities.

The camps are designed to train recruits, which range from Mexican military deserters to American youths, to carry out killings and other cartel assignments on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.

"Traffickers go to great lengths to prepare themselves for battle," a senior U.S. anti-narcotics official told the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Part of that preparation is live firing ranges and combat training courses. ... And that's not something that we have seen before."

The newspaper reported that many of the training camps are used temporarily then abandoned, while others are permanent, fortified facilities. In Texas, Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores said he and other law enforcement officials are struggling to "secure" the border amid escalating violence among rival drug cartels.

"We know through intelligence sources that narco-traffickers invest money in Mexican nationals and U.S. citizens in training camps to instruct them in the black art of assassination and terror," he said. "It's even more shocking to hear that they even have mobile training sites because they take loads of money to set up."

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