- 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 Barbie”, was sentenced to serve 49 years and was ordered to forfeit $192 million, which prosecutors say is a conservative estimate of the value of the cocaine Valdez was responsible for importing into the United States.
- Human rights organisations called on International Criminal Court prosecutors to investigate atrocities allegedly committed by the Mexican military in a crackdown on drug crime in the Chihuahua region.
- The Colombian Navy carried out five combined operations in the Pacific and the Caribbean in coordination with the navies and coast guards of the United States, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama, as part of naval military strategy Orion, which resulted in the seizure of 19.5 tons of cocaine hydrochloride. Given the good results, Colombia plans a second combined exercise.
- Six Mexican police officers have been murdered in the central state of Puebla which is ravaged by gangs active in drug trafficking, fuel theft and kidnapping.
