18/04 The global environmental impacts of cocaine. The environmental impacts of cocaine have long been known. Studies raised alarm bells in the 1990s over narco-driven deforestation, soil degradation and pollution in Latin America. Today, the impacts all along the illegal drug supply chain are even better understood and documented but remain underrecognized and underreported.
21/04 Cocaine lords targeted in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Joint actions of the Belgian Federal Police Antwerp (Federale Politie Antwerpen), the Dutch National Police (Politie) and the German Regional Police (Landeskriminalamt Niedersachsen) and Federal Police (Bundeskriminalamt / BKA), coordinated by Europol, led to the identification and indictment of major European High-Value Targets importing large amounts of cocaine from South America to the EU. The operation also involved the Paraguayan National Antidrug Secretariat (SENAD – Secretaria Nacional Antidrogas).
21/04 INTERPOL – Illegal logging in Latin America and the Caribbean inflicting irreversible damage. An INTERPOL-coordinated operation codenamed Arcadia LAC has recovered more than 80 truckloads (more than 1,200 cubic meters) of illegal timber from forests across Latin America and the Caribbean. The value of the seized timber is estimated at more than USD 700,000.
24/04 Nigeria thwarts drug trafficking from Brazil. Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested four alleged traffickers and confiscated substantial quantities of cocaine and heroin at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in the capital Abuja and Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the commercial state of Lagos.