On February 14, 2019, the work of the SEACOP teams in Barbados resulted in the seizure of over 1 tonne of cannabis, estimated at $9 049 920 and 22.7 kilogrammes of cocaine estimated at $1 135 000. The drugs were found in a container originating from Trinidad and hidden in bales of waste paper. The…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested the reclassification of cannabis as Schedule 1 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. At least half of the 53 members of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs will have to ratify the proposed amendments, for the proposition to be accepted. However, many of these countries prohibit the use…
The authorities of Trinidad and Tobago are considering the legalisation of cannabis. In late December, the government announced that the drug will be decriminalised in May or June 2019. To this, some groups of the society responded that only legal cultivation could prevent the violence linked to organised crime. In Colombia, criminal groups are taking…
Under the framework of CRIMJUST, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) delivered a workshop in International Judicial Cooperation in cases of organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering, in collaboration with the National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs (DEVIDA PERU) and the Iberoamerican Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors (RFAI), on 26-28…
Between March and May 2018, INTERPOL coordinated operations in 36 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America, with the aim of shutting down factories and cutting off supply chains behind a wide range of counterfeit goods and the organised crime networks directing them. The operations yielded global seizures worth USD 25 million.…
Conservative candidate Ivan Duque has won Colombia’s presidential runoff election on 17 June 2018. Duque’s presidential agenda included next to the peace deal also narco-trafficking. Colombia’s production of cocaine has increased, and armed groups are fighting each other for control of routes once controlled by FARC. The cocaine kingpin, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as “La…
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean (UNODC ROPAN) has supported the National Aeronaval Service (SENAN) of Panama under the framework of the CRIMJUST project, in adopting a mandatory ethics training to prevent corruption on 28 May 2018. The training titled, “Basic Course on Ethics…
The Brazilian armed forces deployed 10.000 troops in Rio de Janeiro and planned a number of operations
G20 leaders pledged during the G20 Summit in Hamburg to focus their efforts on
According to the World Drug Report 2017 from the UNODC, the global illicit drug market is
