Weekly Briefing – Week of 22 February

Around 300 Ecuadorian fishermen have been arrested in the last three years by foreign authorities for being involved in international drug-trafficking rings. According to the Ecuadorian authorities, the fishermen are now under the custody in the United States, Guatemala or Colombia. The EMCDDA is currently developing estimates of the size of the drug market in the…

News Briefing – Week of 8 February

Barbados is now better equipped to fight transnational organised crime and boost its drug interdiction capacities following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of AIRCOP. An INTERPOL operation named “Operation Adwenpa” to strengthen border controls along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor has resulted in major seizures of drugs, stolen cars, currency, firearms and…

News Briefing – Week of 25 January

Ghana, Benin and Senegal are proposing a progressive approach to drugs in line with the AU Common African Position for UNGASS 2016. Rather than focusing on disproportionate law enforcement and repression, this common position will emphasise harm reduction over punitive measures. Ghana is currently reviewing its drug law, and it has set up an inter-ministerial…

News Briefing – Week of 11 January

The Nigerian civic group called the Civil Society Network against Corruption (CSNAC) submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a reported case of money laundering that would have involved the National Assembly between 2009 and 2015. According to the civil society, several members of the National Assembly repeatedly violated the…

News Briefing – Week of 7 December

Twenty judges of the Ghanaian Lower Court were arrested after months of investigations following the release of a documentary film in September that showed judges and magistrates accepting bribes to influence their verdicts in court. However, the judges will not be tried for their crimes. Ghana’s Chief of Justice Georgina Wood declared that resolute measures…

News Briefing – Week of 9 November

Bolivian Defense Minister signed an agreeement to buy radar equipment designed to detect drug planes. The equipment was purchased from the French company Thales Air System. This agreement could help the government reduce Bolivia’s role in the “cocaine air bridge” from Peru to Brazil. Indigenous groups on the Caribbean coast of Honduras are denouncing distress…

News Briefing – Week of 2 November

Two French pilots who fled from Dominican Republic as accused of alleged cocaine trafficking, were arrested in France. Dominican Republic’s prosecutor general announced tht he had requested an international arrest warrant for the two pilots. UNODC and other stakeholders called the Federal Government of Niigeria to review its drug laws, focusing more on the rehabilitation…

News Briefing – Week of 12 October

The British Government has started delivering fundings to Peru for the establishment of a new surveillance centre to intercept phone calls of up to 100 drugtraffickers. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested a Kenyan Airways profiler at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos for allegedly exporting 3.1 kg of cannabis to Dubai. Former…

News Briefing – Week beginning on 5 October

During bilateral talks at State House in Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzania committed to join forces in the fight drug against trafficking, terrorism and poaching. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared that the two countries must work together to containe this global menace which jeopardise trade and economic development. The National Banks and Securities Commission of Honduras…

News Briefing – Week beginning on 29 September

Victor Ramon Navarro, one of the most important and ruthless cocaine warlords in Colombia, was killed in Catatumbo, during an airstrike followed by a ground operation organised by the Colombian Army. Diezani Allison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former minister of petroleum, was arrested in London as accused of money laundering. The former minister’s arrest would be the first high…