Two highly regarded researchers in the study of drug trafficking and organized crime presented a radical analysis at last week’s conference of the International Society of the Study of Drug Policy in Ghent. Letizia Paoli (Univeristy of Leuven) and Victoria Greenfield (George Mason University) have a record of contributing to our understanding of drug markets…
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s parliamentary speaker, has denied involvement in cocaine smuggling, following US reports that he is under investigation for trafficking and money laundering. A plane carrying over a tonne of cocaine crashed into the Caribbean following a pursuit by the Colombian air force. The use of caterpillars which feed on coca plants has been…
Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said that the nexus between terrorists and criminals has strengthened over the last decade. A Coast Guard cutter reportedly arrived in San Diego with more than 14 tonnes of cocaine, following 19 separate seizures. This included a 10.5 tonne seizure…
A kingpin of the Sinaloa drug cartel, ‘La Señora’, responsible for large supplies of cocaine, has been arrested in Cancun, Mexico. Peruvian anti-drug police have released details of how narco-traffickers move cocaine through the Amazon. Bolivia has fired seven state prosecutors following investigations following complaints of irregularities, including corruption. The Colombian Navy has reportedly seized…
Peru attracted a new unwanted title as ‘the King of Cocaine’ when it overtook Colombia in coca production in 2013. The president of the National Commission for Development of Life and Drugs (Devida), Alberto Otarola, has explicitly stated, ‘Peru doesn’t want to be a country with the title of coca or cocaine producer’, but losing…
Benny Palmeri-Bacchi, a former Venezuelan judge, has been sentenced to over six years in prison for his role in ‘a major cocaine trafficking case’ that helped move Colombian cocaine through Venezuela, and was reportedly linked to the government of former president Hugo Chávez. In November he pleaded guilty to charges of extortion, conspiracy to obstruct…
Small recreational drones flown autonomously by remote pilots have gained popularity.Used for photography, film-making and sports, most recreational drones are innocuous. Punitive anti-drugs strategies in Latin America may be creating a new market for drones though. For example, the destruction of landing strips in Peru by the military creates a need for new ways to…
One of the unintended consequences of the dismantling of large Colombian cartels over recent years has been the return of European crime groups to Colombia. It is reported that groups from the Balkans have also arrived, hardened from years of working in a conflict zone. Striking relationships with South American partners, they are opening up…
Venezuelan officials have denounced a report that links the head of the country’s congress, President Diosdado Cabello, to the drug trade. Georgian police have seized an amount of cocaine valued at US$2.5 million at the Ninotsminda/Bavra border crossing with Armenia. In Nigeria, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has “smashed” a drug trafficking cell…
In the history of drug control, the prohibition on popular, psychoactive substances has three distinct consequences: The replacement of a mild / moderate version of the drug with stronger ones, e.g. the ban of opium/beer is followed by the spread of heroin/whisky. The criminalisation of the distribution chain. The loss of quality control and consumer…
