The Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman, also known as “El Chapo”, was sentenced to life in prison in the US. He formerly ran the Sinaloa cartel in northern Mexico, which was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US. He was accused of trafficking hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into the country. A new aerial…
The price of opium dropped by 90 percent over the past year and a half in Mexico, due to speculation, high heroin production and changes in the supply and demand of illegal drugs in the US. Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate, is increasingly replacing heroin. This is driving farmers away from poppy cultivation. Mexican law enforcement…
Nearly 750 military staff, mostly low-ranking officers, have reportedly perished since the Mexican government launched the “war on drugs” in 2006. Tamaulipas, a state located on the US-Mexico border accounts for the state where most of the most military deaths occurred. The Romanian police seized more than a ton of high-quality cocaine in a boat…
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…
After numerous seizures during the month of November, the Venezuelan authorities reported an increase in drug flows coming from Colombia through the country’s coastal state of Anzoátegui. It seems that the region is also the centre of an air-trafficking network, sending drugs to the Caribbean, Honduras and Mexico. The dismantling of a network of ketamine…
Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, son of the Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán, is reportedly in Medellín, Colombia under the protection of a criminal gang. He is allegedly controlling two laboratories in the city and coordinating the shipment of around 400 kg of cocaine per week to Mexico from the Colombian port of Buenaventura, highlighting the…
Mexican drug lord Héctor Beltrán Leyva died of a heart attack on November 19. He was the last of his brothers at the head of the Beltrán Leyva cartel before he was arrested and jailed in 2014. The cartel started by operating in the state of Sinaloa and it controlled some of the main smuggling…
The influence of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian armed group, is growing as the group reportedly operates on Venezuelan territory. Venezuela’s minister of defence raised criticisms towards the Colombian authorities, saying that they were not able to contain the threat of criminal groups and drug trafficking. Academics, researchers, and journalists, met on November…
A report from the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) critically analysed the UNODC 10-years plan to tackle drug trafficking and highlighted the human cost of the international war on drugs. According to the IDPC, despite UN efforts, drug-related deaths have increased 145% in the last decade. The US Department of Justice revealed a list of…
