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Chronicle Book Review: Drugs and Drug Policy
A trio of academic experts have come up with a drug policy book you're going to want to read, even if only to argue with it. Especially to argue with it.
Source and Transit Countries
Drug Trafficking Organizations Enriched by Prohibition Muscle Into New Territory: Central America
Drug trafficking organizations have muscled their way into Central America, opening a new chapter in the drug prohibition war that almost certainly will exact further cost on U.S. taxpayers as American authorities confront these organizations on a new frontier. The extent of the infiltration is breathtaking. Drug trafficking organizations now control large parts of the countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America. They've bought off politicians and police, moved cocaine processing laboratories up from the Andes, and are obtaining rockets and other heavy armament that make them more than a match for Central America's weak militaries.
Venezuelan Drug Trafficker, Walid Makled, Says Chávez Government Officials Tied to Cocaine Trade
Walid Makled says he had top Venezuelan generals and government officials on his payroll. He says that five or six plane-loads of cocaine take off everyday from San Fernandeo de Apure, in south-western Venezuela, bound for the US, via Honduras and Mexico. "Itâs an everyday thing. Not every other day, itâs every day. Between FARC and the Venezuelan Army, weâre talking about four or five planes leaving Apure every day."
Authorities in Awe of Drug Trafficking Organizations' Jungle-Built, Kevlar-Coated Supersubs
For decades, Colombian drug trafficking organization have pursued their trade with amazingly professional ingenuity, staying a step ahead of authorities by coming up with one innovation after another. When false-paneled pickups and tractor-trailers began drawing suspicion at US checkpoints, the traffickers and their Mexican partners built air-conditioned tunnels under the border. When border agents started rounding up too many human mules, one group of Colombian smugglers surgically implanted heroin into purebred puppies. But the drug runnersâ most persistently effective method has also been one of the crudest â semi-submersible vessels that cruise or are towed just below the oceanâs surface and can hold a ton or more of cocaine.
How Afghan Poppy Eradication Efforts Are Helping the World's Largest Heroin Dealers
It has long been known inside Afghanistan that heroin dealers in high positions benefit from the United States and Afghan governments' counternarcotics policies. Now the American public can get a glimpse. US embassy cables published recently by WikiLeaks expose the insider opinion that Afghan officials are using poppy eradication teams to weed out the competitors of major traffickers with whom they are linked.
Colombia's FARC May Inherit Hundreds of Men from Slain Drug Lord
Colombia's largest rebel group FARC may benefit from the recent killing of neo-paramilitary drug lord "Cuchillo," newspaper El Espectador reports. According to the newspaper, the death of Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero, alias Cuchillo, late last month brought an end to the paramilitary rule of the underworld of Colombia's eastern plains that started when the AUC took control of the region in the 1990s. A police investigator told El Espectador that members of Cuchillo's organization ERPAC have been meeting to assure a continuation of the drug trade, but have not been able to appoint a successor of their slain leader.
Drugs Are a Development Issue - Which is Why We Should Legalize Them (Opinion)
Jonathan Glennie, a research fellow in the Center for Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE) at Overseas Development Institute (ODI), opines that since drug prohibition deeply affects some of the world's poorest people, the development community must back legalization calls.
Flood of Drugs from Myanmar: Is War Brewing?
In the lead-up to Myanmar's first elections in two decades the flow of drugs from the country has become a flood as drug-producing rebels prepare for a showdown with the junta, experts say. Thailand has seen the amount of illicit drugs seized surge this year and observers say nervousness about a possible military crackdown in Myanmar on armed minorities could be fueling the increase. Thailand-based Saw David Taw of the Ethnic Nationalities Council - a coalition of Myanmar ethnic groups - said there was "a rumour going around that people are preparing for war".
Mexican President Calls for Drug Legalization Debate
After presiding for years over the bloodiest drug war escalation in history, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is finally ready to discuss legalization.
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What's the Big Deal About Narco-Subs?
The DEA is proud of having helped Ecuadoran authorities capture this "narco-sub":
Silly DEA -- don't they realize what the implications are, of drug traffickers having the wherewithal to operate a submarine? It means they have effectively unlimited resources to devote to the task of finding a way to get their product from point A to point B, and to reducing the cost associated with doing so. If it's not over the border, it's under it. If it's not by air, it's on the sea. If not on the sea, then under the sea -- using narco-subs. Apparently lots of narco-subs:
Oh, and don't forget, if not here, then there. Silly DEA. Random thought on the DEA photograph: Does this remind anyone else of Yoda in the jungle on his planet, using the force to lift the damaged spacecraft, Empire Strikes Back movie?