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Government Corruption

Iowa Lawmaker Faces Ethics Review Over Faking Symptoms to Get a Doctor's Recommendation for Medical Marijuana in California

Rep. Clel Baudler, a Greenfield Republican and former state trooper, who traveled to California and lied to a physician about having painful hemorrhoids in order to obtain a medical marijuana recommendation in California will answer to the Iowa's House Ethics Committee. The Iowa Board of Pharmacy voted unanimously last year to recommend that lawmakers reclassify marijuana so it could be used for medical purposes.

Former Senior China Anti-Drug Official Gets Death Penalty for Drug Trafficking

A court handed down the death penalty to the former deputy head of anti-narcotics efforts in China's most populous metropolis, Chongqing. Luo Li had been collaborating with drug dealers in Chongqing since 2005 and took 1.2 million yuan ($233,038) in bribes to turn a blind eye to the activities of two of them, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a court statement.

Mexican Lawmaker Denied Immunity in Drug Trafficking Organization Case

Mexico's Congress has voted to strip a lawmaker of his immunity, allowing for the prosecution of a sitting congressman with alleged ties to the country's powerful drug trafficking organizations for the first time ever in the country. Lawmakers voted 382-2 to let federal prosecutors move forward with a criminal case against Julio Cesar Godoy, a representative from the state of Michoacan accused of laundering money for the notorious La Familia.

WikiLeaks Cables: Ghanaian Police 'Helped Drug Smugglers Evade Security'

A £1m taxpayer-funded anti-trafficking campaign to stem the flow of cocaine into the UK through Ghana's busiest airport is beset by corruption, with drugs police sabotaging expensive British-bought scanning equipment and tipping off smugglers, leaked US embassy cables reveal. Ghana president John Atta Mills even worried that his own entourage could be smuggling drugs through his presidential lounge at Accra's Kotoka airport and asked a senior UK customs official last November for help to screen them "in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs", according to the US embassy in Accra (cable 234015).

WikiLeaks: Nicaragua Government Took Bribes from Drug Traffickers

U.S. diplomats accused Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government of taking bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for freeing suspects, in cables released by Wikileaks. The Nicaraguan Consulate in Washington declined to comment, deferring to the Foreign Ministry, which didn’t respond to a request for comment. Government representatives in Managua couldn’t be reached. The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the cable.

Wikileaks: Nicaragua's Ortega 'Financed by Drug Money'

According to one of the released cables which appeared on the website of Spain's El Pais newspaper: "Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas have regularly received money to finance [his party] FSLN electoral campaigns from international drug traffickers, usually in return for ordering Sandinista judges to allow traffickers caught by the police and military to go free." Furthermore, it says: "In 1984, Daniel Ortega negotiated a deal with Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar whereby Escobar received refuge for several months in Nicaragua after he had ordered the killing of the Colombian minister of justice." In return, Mr Ortega and his party, the FSLN, received large cash payments from Pablo Escobar, it adds.