drug traffickers

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Texas Beachcombers Find $500K Worth of Cocaine

Couple looking for seashells discover huge washed-up drug haul

(Newser) - A couple hunting for seashells and shark teeth on a Texas beach this week stumbled across 53 pounds of pure cocaine in neatly wrapped packages, KFDM News reports. The haul has a street value of some $500,000, according to local cops. They believe it was probably chucked overboard by...

Obama Moves to Halt 'River' of Guns, Drugs to Mexico

Adds top cartels to 'drug kingpin' list

(Newser) - On the eve of an important meeting with Mexico’s president, President Obama yesterday imposed sanctions against the top Mexican drug cartels in a move intended to slow cross-border drugs and weapons trafficking, the Washington Post reports. After speeding up a process that normally takes a year, he added three...

Colombia Nabs Top Drug Lord
 Colombia Nabs Top Drug Lord 
Apr 15, 2009 2:44 PM CDT

Colombia Nabs Top Drug Lord

US will seek to extradite Daniel Rendon

(Newser) - Colombian police nabbed their nation's top drug lord today, and the country's president "is breathing easy," a rep told AFP. Daniel Rendon, 43, alias Don Mario, had a $2 million price on his head after allegedly swapping drugs for weapons from leftist FARC rebels. Now that he's in...

Economic Crisis Triggers Global Crime Wave
Economic Crisis Triggers Global Crime Wave
ANALYSIS
Apr 7, 2009 8:35 AM CDT

Economic Crisis Triggers Global Crime Wave

Crisis gives globalized crime gangs opportunity to flourish

(Newser) - The global economic crisis has been a massive stimulus package for violent crime worldwide, Michael Klare writes in Salon. Crime syndicates are finding it easy to recruit from the growing ranks of the unemployed and desperate, the professor writes, and their increasing power is weakening the governments of "narco-states"...

Mexico Busts Drug Lord's Son
 Mexico Busts Drug Lord's Son 
Mar 20, 2009 5:12 AM CDT

Mexico Busts Drug Lord's Son

Military says arrest of Sinaloa kingpin's son deals a heavy blow to cartel

(Newser) - The Mexican military has arrested the son of one of the country's most powerful drug barons, reports the Los Angeles Times. Vicente Zambada, 33, whose father is deputy head of the Sinaloa cartel, had risen through the ranks to become one of the cartel's top leaders and had ordered the...

Mexican Army Sweeps Into Juarez

Mexico pushes to retake control of border city from warring cartels

(Newser) - Thousands of Mexican troops are pouring into Ciudad Juarez as the government tries to prevent total anarchy in the country's most violent city, reports Reuters. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the border city during the last year as drug cartels—in league with corrupt cops—battle...

Mexico Calls in Army as Drug War Escalates

President deploys 45,000 troops into major cities

(Newser) - Mexican President Felipe Calderón yesterday defended his decision to deploy 45,000 troops in major cities in his fight against the drug cartels, reports the Washington Post. In a speech to the army, Calderón said the military would remain in place until it had regained control of the...

Latin American Leaders Slam Failed US Drug War

Group of ex-leaders calls for US to move away from prohibitionist policies

(Newser) - Some of America's firmest allies in the war on drugs say the battle is shattering their societies while failing to stop the flow of drugs, reports the Wall Street Journal. A report from a panel headed by the former leaders of Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico—all conservatives who hit hard...

Drug Arrest Knocks Crown Off Beauty Queen

Some fear pageant's drug ties run deep

(Newser) - A Mexican beauty pageant winner lost her title yesterday after being arrested with a top drug trafficker, the New York Daily News reports. Authorities said Miss Sinaloa, Laura Zúñiga Huizar, was collared along with leaders of the Juarez drug cartel, an arsenal of weapons, and $55,000 in...

Mexican Beauty Queen Busted With Drug Mobsters

Miss Hispanic America found traveling with cartel's Mr. Big in gun-filled truck

(Newser) - Miss Hispanic America 2008 will be finishing this year in jail after cops busted her traveling with seven alleged drug cartel mobsters, the Houston Chronicle reports. Laura Zuniga, from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, was stopped at a military checkpoint near Guadalajara in a truck full of guns, ammunition and...

US War on Drugs Has Failed: Report
US War on Drugs Has Failed: Report
Nov 27, 2008 8:42 AM CST

US War on Drugs Has Failed: Report

Americans urged to focus on treatment, prevention, gun sales

(Newser) - America is treating the symptoms rather than the disease of drug use, and its war on drugs will continue to fail unless it changes course, a new report by an influential Washington think tank finds. The report urges the US to develop stronger ties in the Caribbean and Latin America,...

Mexico Busts Former Drug Czar
 Mexico Busts Former Drug Czar 
Nov 22, 2008 7:26 AM CST

Mexico Busts Former Drug Czar

Former head of elite 'corruption-proof' unit accused of passing info to drug cartels

(Newser) - The former chief of Mexico's anti-drug operations has been arrested on suspicion of taking massive bribes from drug cartels, the Wall Street Journal reports. Noe Ramirez, accused of  pocketing $450,000 for passing information on investigations to drug kingpins, is the highest-ranking official arrested so far in "Operation Cleanup,...

Peruvian Rebel Group Finds New Life

Shining Path kinder, gentler and more ideologically muddled, but still deadly

(Newser) - All but forgotten, Peru's Shining Path guerrilla group has again become a force to be reckoned with, killing more people in October than it had in any month since the 1990s, the Washington Post reports in a look at its secretive ranks. Today’s drug-financed Path leans more liberal narcoterrorist...

Drug Kingpins Corrupt Elite Mexican Unit

Top anti-drug agents accused of passing information to traffickers

(Newser) - Two senior officials from an elite Mexican anti-drug unit have been arrested and charged with spying for drug cartels, the Los Angeles Times reports, and dozens of agents have been fired following a tip-off from a captured informant. Prosecutors say the officials leaked information to the gangs they were supposed...

NATO Troops Target Afghan Drug Lords

Troops given green light to attack industry that funds Taliban insurgents

(Newser) - NATO has given its troops permission to go after Afghanistan's drugs labs and opium kingpins, Agence France Presse reports. Some members of the alliance had been wary of targeting the industry, fearful of alienating farmers. But the Afghan government has given its blessing to attacks on the trade that puts...

Cops Shoot Mayor's Dogs in Bad Drug Bust

Cops kill Labs 'for sport,' handcuff mayor in boxers

(Newser) - A Maryland mayor is demanding an investigation after police burst into his home and shot his two dogs dead, reports the Baltimore Sun. Cheye Calvo, the mayor of Baltimore suburb Berwyn Heights, and his wife were apparently victims of a smuggling ring that sent packages of marijuana to unsuspecting victims,...

Drug Addiction Shoots Up in Mexico
Drug Addiction Shoots Up
in Mexico
Jul 23, 2008 7:28 AM CDT

Drug Addiction Shoots Up in Mexico

Traffickers thwarted at border sell crack, heroin, meth to locals

(Newser) - Drug addiction is skyrocketing in Mexico, which used to be simply a transit point for illegal drugs rather than a major consumer market, reports USA Today. As increased border security foils smugglers along the American border, the drugs end up being sold to Mexicans. Crack cocaine use has risen sharply,...

Stories 41 - 57 | << Prev