Argentine customs agents found about 30 kg of cocaine absorbed into grains of rice headed to Africa and then be transported to Europe. This seizure reflects the growing importance of Argentina as a shipping point for cocaine from Latin America to Western countries. Drug trafficking in Honduras has reportedly dropped 72% thanks to military intelligence…
WAPIS, one of the components of the Cocaine Route Programme has launched the first electronic police information system in Mali as well as in Benin and Niger. The launch was attended by Mali’s Interior Minister, Général Sada Samaké, who emphasized its ‘internal security role’. Funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by INTERPOL with…
Over recent years there have been allegations that Al-Shabaab, the radical Somali Islamist group, is deriving considerable funds from elephant poaching and the ivory trade. Researchers from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) have examined the evidence and expose this as myth in a new study: ‘Illusion of Complicity.” There is little evidence of any…
The number of methamphetamine laboratories dismantled by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has fallen from 12,049 in 2013 to 9,306 in 2014. Yet, because the levels of meth consumption are believed to have remained stable the agency believes that production has shifted across the border to Mexico. One of the reasons for this, according…
Brazil’s Supreme Court justices have been discussing the possibility of decriminalise the personal possession of marijuana. Six votes are needed for the bill to pass and three out of the 11 judges have already voted in favour. According to the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) approximately 62 tons of cocaine were seized last…
Cocaine prices appear to have stabilised in the major consumer markets. Falling demand, competition from New Psychoactive Substances and shifts in consumer preference have been suggested by way of explanation. But according to UNODC sources in Peru a different factor may be at work. Changes in the refinement method mean that a far lower amount…
Ecuador’s National Council for Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (Consep) has announced a new four level system to differentiate between drug users, microtraffickers and large scale traffickers in terms of prison sentences. Significant changes have also been applied on the amount of heroin and cocaine a person can possess for personal use. Colombian security forces intecepted…
According to the Coca Crop Monitoring Survey released by the UNODC, cocaine production in Bolivia declined by 11% in the past year, marking the fourth year in a row of steady decrease. The surface under coca cultivation in 2014 is the lowest since UNODC began its monitoring survey in 2003. Through the use of satellite…
Bolivian authorities surprised two alleged Brazilian drug smugglers at a clandestine airstrip near Santa Cruz as they were in the process of loading a plane with 400 kg of cocaine. Bolivian police reported that the two Brazilians were members of a criminal group called Red Command. One of the smugglers died in the shootout on…
The Joint Airport Interdiction Task Force (JAITF) at Lomé-Tokoin Airport has reported the seizure of just under 14 kilogramme of Schedule One drugs found in the luggage of a Togolese national. The traveler arrived from Sao Paulo via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airline flight. Law enforcement officers in West Africa have become increasingly aware…
