Accra Connection

May 2, 2013, 2:18 pm

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Last April, thousands of miles from Baltimore in the West African country of Ghana, a man known as “Wagba” got on the phone and mediated a Baltimore heroin-dealing dispute.

Nana Boateng, who supplied Baltimore dealers with heroin shipped under Wagba’s direction by couriers traveling to the United States on commercial flights leaving West Africa, was in a heated argument with another Ghanaian, Krist Koranteng, who also supplied Baltimore heroin dealers with courier-carried heroin from West Africa.

The two were threatening one another, with Koranteng saying he’d arrange for men to come from Ghana to kill Boateng if he didn’t pay up for short-changing Koranteng’s friend, Moses Appram, on a 200-gram heroin deal. Boateng, in response, vowed to come to Ghana and kill Koranteng himself.

Since Boateng’s phones were wiretapped as part of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation, his conversations with Wagba were recorded for posterity. As a result of the probe, Boateng, Koranteng, Appram, and three others were indicted last year in Maryland federal court for participating in a heroin conspiracy. All of them pleaded guilty except Appram, whose three-day trial in Baltimore’s federal courthouse ended on May 2 with a jury conviction. Koranteng testified as a government cooperator, and Wagba’s name, as well as the recorded, translated, and transcribed phone conversations he had with Boateng, came up often during the trial.

Baltimore

Ultimately, no one was killed or attacked as a result of the dispute, and Koranteng testified that he ended up taking the loss on Appram’s ill-fated deal with Boateng. But Wagba’s dealings with Boateng did not end there. In late May 2011, according to court documents, Wagba coordinated a courier shipment of heroin to Boateng, who waited for six hours at Washington Dulles International Airport as the courier, who was caught by law enforcers as she arrived with 3.3 kilograms of heroin in her luggage, was detained and questioned by authorities. At the agents’ direction, the courier called Wagba, who told her “someone would get back to her. Shortly thereafter, a call from Boateng was received” on the courier’s phone, the court documents state.

That a phantom, faraway figure like Wagba could play such an intimate role in Baltimore’s heroin trade, both by managing a street-level flap like Appram’s flimflamming at the hands of Boateng and by orchestrating a subsequent intercepted delivery, speaks volumes about how closely tied Baltimore’s heroin trade is to West Africa, even though the two are thousands of miles apart. And that Koranteng, who was in Ghana as he argued over the phone with Boateng, suggested he could send Ghanaian killers to do his dirty work in Baltimore further emphasizes how small a world the global heroin trade sometimes can be.

But when looked at from a broader perspective, the heroin trade involving West Africa can seem immense, complex, and highly geopolitical, since the region is considered by the United Nations, the United States and other countries, and an array of nongovernmental organizations to be currently one of the world’s foremost transshipment points for narcotics from Asia and Latin America.

The reason for this, DEA special agent Todd Edwards explained on the stand at Appram’s trial, is that it is “difficult” for producers to ship directly to the United States from the source countries—Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, Colombia, and Mexico—because “everyone knows” they are source countries, so law-enforcement scrutiny will be greater. Heroin producers, therefore, prefer to “go to other countries to have the heroin shipped to the U.S.,” Edwards continued, “and Africa is one of those places, and Ghana and Nigeria are two of the major ones.”

Thus, criminals in West Africa not only get lucrative narco-business serving the transportation needs of the world’s heroin producers; they may also become strategically important to the producer’s larger strategic agendas. And increasingly, the United States is presenting evidence that those agendas have turned West Africa into a key locale for terrorists’ drug-trafficking and money-laundering activities.

In 2009, the same year the DEA opened an office in Accra, Ghana, three al Qaeda-linked men from Maliwere arrested in Ghana and charged by U.S. authorities with drug trafficking in aid of terrorism—the first use of a new federal law passed in 2006. West African drug trafficking is also implicated in two other terror-financing cases filed recently in New York, one involving the Taliban and the other Hezbollah, a militant Muslim group and political party based in Lebanon that the United States and a handful of other Western and Middle Eastern countries regard as a terrorist group.

The Taliban case, filed in February 2011, accuses seven men, two of them U.S. citizens, of conspiring to help the Afghan religious movement’s heroin- and cocaine-trafficking enterprises and to sell weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, that the Taliban would use to protect its heroin-processing facilities in Afghanistan from attacks by U.S. forces. The lead co-conspirator, Maroun Saade, is described in the indictment as a “narcotics trafficker operating in West Africa” who agreed to transport “multi-ton shipments of Taliban-owned heroin” to Ghana, where “portions of those shipments would be sent by commercial airplane to the United States to be sold for the financial benefit of the Taliban.” Saade and the others allegedly believed they were dealing with the Taliban, but in fact they were dealing with confidential sources working on behalf of the DEA.

The other case is a civil forfeiture suit in which the U.S. government seeks to take ownership of the assets of businesses and banks involved in an alleged half-billion-dollar drug-money-laundering scheme to aid Hezbollah.

The central drug-trafficking figure accused in the Hezbollah case is Ayman Joumaa, a Lebanese man who is currently a fugitive from U.S. justice in a Virginia federal case charging him with bringing 85,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States and laundering more than $850 million in Mexican drug-cartel money. Saade, from the Taliban case, also figures in this case, allegedly helping to move laundered cash derived from used-car sales in West Africa to Lebanon.

Though no prosecution brought so far in Maryland has drawn connections between Baltimore heroin dealers and West Africans tied to terrorism, the Hezbollah forfeiture case in New York includes two Maryland car dealers—one in Columbia, the other in Burtonsville, a small Montgomery County town of about 10,000 people, near Laurel—whose assets are being targeted for forfeiture because of evidence they helped launder Hezbollah drug money by accepting millions of dollars in wire transfers to buy cars and ship them to West Africa, where they were sold for cash bound for Lebanon.

In essence, the 65-page Hezbollah complaint describes an alleged scheme in which drug-derived cash was temporarily converted into cars. This would eliminate the risks of detection and headaches of shipping bulk cash back across the Atlantic Ocean to West Africa. Once the cars arrive there, though, they can quickly be converted back to cash—with a profit margin, given the higher prices the cars fetch in West Africa.

Both Appram and Koranteng were in the cars-to-West-Africa business, according to evidence in Appram’s trial. So were other co-conspirators who testified at Appram’s trial, as well as defendants in several other Maryland cases involving heroin from West Africa. In each instance, there is nothing to suggest the car-shipping enterprises were anything but legitimate. The coincidence is striking, however—especially in light of the fact that Appram and Koranteng are both residents of Burtonsville, where one of the car dealers with alleged Hezbollah ties is located.

Though heroin comes almost entirely from poppies grown in Asia and South America, as special agent Edwards explained during Appram’s trial, criminal trade routes of varying geography and sophistication convey it across the world. Judging by the Appram case, and numerous other recent cases in federal court here and in Virginia, law enforcers are mounting a sustained, multi-front assault on the West African route to Baltimore, especially through Ghana and Nigeria.

Commercial-air travelers entering the United States from West Africa as paid heroin couriers are a key element of the supply chain, court records show. With practice, so-called “internal smugglers” ingest “pellets”—finger-sized, egg-shaped packages of heroin—in seemingly impossible numbers. Adding to the flow are couriers who pack heroin not in their stomachs, but in their luggage, clothing, or wigs.

How much of this heroin smuggled from West Africa is bound for Baltimore’s streets is hard to say, but judging from the pace and scope of recent prosecutions, it’s significant. Here’s a chronological sampling:

Edward Aboagye, a Baltimore-based Ghanaian car dealer who exported vehicles to West Africa while enrolled as a student at Morgan State University, was charged in a heroin conspiracy, along with two others, after a half-kilogram of heroin in pellets was found in the safe of his hotel room at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in downtown Baltimore on March 14, 2009. He pleaded guilty and testified against one of his co-conspirators, who was found guilty by a jury.

Two weeks later, Frank Aidoo, a Ghana-born Dutch citizen, was caught at Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) with 100 heroin pellets in his stomach; his business, according to court records, was buying clothing abroad to resell in Ghana. He pleaded guilty, but recently won an appeal of his sentence.

In January 2010, Suleiman Zakaria arrived at BWI on a flight that originated in Ghana, and three kilograms of heroin were found within the lining of his luggage. He was convicted at a jury trial after mounting a defense that included facts about his business: shipping used cars purchased in the United States to resell in Ghana.

In April 2011 in Virginia, eight people were indicted for a heroin-importation conspiracy that supplied Baltimore, along with other areas, with heroin that was brought by couriers from West Africa to the United States. Nearly all of the defendants have pleaded guilty.

Daniel Redd Centre

In July 2011, Baltimore City Police officer Daniel Redd was among five indicted in a heroin conspiracy supplied from West Africa. One of the co-conspirators in the case, Abdul Zakaria, aka Tamim Mamah, is Suleiman Zakaria’s brother. He testified as a government cooperator at Appram’s trial, where, in explaining his work history, he said he “was buying cars and shipping them to Africa.” All five defendants in the Redd case have pleaded guilty.

Just after Christmas 2011, two men, Nana Bartels-Riverson and Awal Mohammad, were arrested on I-95 in Howard County after nearly a kilogram of heroin was found in the car they were driving. When interviewed by DEA agents, Mohammad explained that the heroin had come from Ghana via courier, and that they were taking it to Baltimore to sell to a dealer. Their case is still in court.

On Dec. 29, 2011, a wiretap investigation by DEA investigators targeting three alleged drug traffickers suspected of having couriers smuggle heroin into Maryland from Africa—Eddie Patrick, Kenneth Ukoh, and Chrisanti Ignass, who, court documents state, conducted heroin transactions at the InterContinental Harbor Court Hotel in Baltimore—culminated with an African courier in a Maryland hotel room, expelling what eventually turned out to be 80 heroin-filled condoms from his gastrointestinal tract. Their case is still in court.

In March, a Nigerian woman, Ngozi Helen Omokoh, and two Maryland men—David Shenard Merritte of Baltimore and Larry Deen Hutchinson of Prince George’s County—were charged after all three were found in a Maryland hotel room where Omokoh had delivered 725 grams of heroin pellets. Their case is still in court.

On May 3, after a 15-month wiretap investigation, the DEA arrested Joseph Osiomwan, a 51-year-old car dealer who lives in idyllic Monkton, near the posh Manor Tavern five-star restaurant, and owns Woodland Motors, a used-car dealership on Reisterstown Road in Baltimore City. He was arrested as he left an alleged stash house in Northeast Baltimore, and when the agents searched him, they found what they described in court documents as three “fingers” or “eggs” of heroin, commonly used for “heroin to be smuggled into the United States via an internal body carrier.”

One of the common themes running through the stories of the defendants in many of these West African-tied heroin cases in Maryland is that many of them are not solely drug dealers, but also pursue legitimate-looking enterprises—especially buying cars in the United States for resale in West Africa.

How illegitimate such enterprises allegedly can be is illustrated in the Taliban and Hezbollah cases filed in New York. In the absence of any such accusations involving West Africa’s heroin trade in Maryland, though, all the public can know is that people like Wagba in Ghana coordinate shipments of heroin to Baltimore and mediate street beefs—or perhaps settle them—from afar, and that the heroin couriers will continue to come, supplying Baltimore’s streets with heroin.

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Ghana’s Airport Security Chief Caught in DEA Sting

June 8, 2013, 4:25 pm

≫ Next: The War On Drugs- Crossing The Line

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The head of security at Ghana's main international airport has been arrested in the US on charges of heroin trafficking, in the latest sign of a growing narcotics trade in west Africa. All of their negotiations, held mainly in Accra, were caught on tape by uncover DEA agents, statements said.

The airport security chief, Solomon Adelaquaye, 48, and two Nigerians - Frank Muodum, and Celestine Ofor Orjinweke - were arrested in New York on May 9. It was not clear why they travelled to the US ahead of their arrest and the US embassy in Accra did not immediately respond to enquiries. Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, 72, was arrested in Colombia on May 16 and is awaiting extradition, the DEA said. Ghana's narcotics bureau said Adelaquaye was the managing director of a private firm called Sohin Security Checks Ltd, which had managed to secure lucrative government  security contracts at airports across the country.

Documents filed to a federal court in New York, where the group has been charged, said the heroin came from Afghanistan, which had been brought to Ghana by Pinedo-Rueda.

Analysts say Ghana, a nation of some 25 million people, is an emerging trafficking hub for South American and Asian narcotics destined for sale in the US and Europe. Transportation infrastructure is advanced compared to other countries in west Africa, but corruption among customs and port officials remains rampant, according to analysts.

Back in 2010, Mr Adelaquaye  and two associates John Mensah, and Aaron Tetteh were involved in another scandal in which entry documents processed by Sohin Security Checks Ltd, for an American businessman, turned out to be fake when inspected by the Ghana Immigration Service.

The American businessman, David K who arrived in Ghana in 2010 to purchase gold worth tens of thousands of dollars but but was duped in a 419 scam. The cover company in the gold scam was All Star Associates Ltd. operated by Solomon Adelaquaye of Sohin Security Checks Ltd who was also CEO All Star.

Again in January 2013 eighty million dollars worth of Ghana’s gold, that was being transported to Iran, was seized at a Turkish airport because there were no documents covering the cargo. Evidence seems to suggest that Mr Solomon Adelaquaye may have also engineered and carried out that gold scam too. Both cases were investigated by the CID but charges were never brought forward.

The charge sheet of the West African DTO indicated that on or about February 1, 2012, in Accra, Pinedo-Rueda and Muodum met with two confidential sources (labeled as CS-1 and CS-2), who work for the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

At the said meeting, CS-1 introduced Pinedo-Rueda and Muodum to CS-2, who posed as a Colombian narcotics trafficker who was interested in obtaining Afghan heroin to sell in New York.

Again, on February 2, 2012, the alleged drug barons told the undercover agents that Adelaquaye was responsible for security at the Kotoka International Airport and that one of the agents (CS-2) could safely move heroin through the airport.

According to the facts available to the New York District Court, from about February 8, 2012 to February 22, 2012, Pinedo-Rueda spoke by phone with CS-2, which the latter recorded.

In the said conversation, it was agreed that CS-2 would pay Pinedo-Rueda $28,000 for one kilogram of heroin and also pay Adelaquaye $8,000 to guarantee the safe passage of the heroin through Kotoka International Airport.

The New York Court was also told that on or about February 21, 2012, in Accra, Ghana, Pinedo-Rueda, Muodum and Orjinweke met with CS-1 and a third confidential source working for the DEA (CS-3).

During the meeting, CS-3 posed as CS-2′s New York City-based heroin distributor who would transport the heroin to New York City for distribution in and around Manhattan and Bronx.

On February 22, 2012, the undercover agents gave Orjinweke $28,000 cash at a hotel in Accra for the supply of the heroin.

The New York Court was further informed that at a meeting on February 25, 2012, at Adelaquaye’s office at the airport in Accra, the US agent (named as CS-3), indicated he had hidden 1kg (2lb 2oz) of heroin in his laptop.

Following this, Adelaquaye then instructed CS-3 to give the computer to an associate of his and after CS-3 had passed through the security checkpoint at the airport, the laptop was returned to him.

“Also at that meeting, CS-3 gave Adelaquaye $6,000 (£3,900) cash to guarantee the safe passage of the heroin through the airport,” the court was informed.

The US undercover agents, according to the facts before court, later sent Adelaquaye a further $4,000 from New York. 

In May 2013, Adelaquaye, Muodum, and Orjinweke further agreed that one of the CSs would supply them with 3,000 kilograms of cocaine and that in exchange, they would supply the CS with a quantity of heroin of equivalent value, to be delivered to the United States in 25-kilogram increments.

Sohin Security Checks Ltd
The story of how West African DTO gained control of airport security began in February 2009, the acting National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd)  issued a directive asking the various state institutions operating at the airport not to renew contracts they had with the various security companies operating there, no reason was given.  The GACL board also dismissed the Managing Director of the GACL, Elizabeth Annor Sackey and her deputy Yaw Kwakwa. Both were relieved of their appointments without any specific reason.

Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey

Next Mr Solomon Adelaquaye, managed to secure an operating license as a recognized private security company only three months before he was actually awarded the contract, even though the basic requirements, as stated on the tender document, required a company to have 6 years experience before it would be awarded the contract.


The then newly appointed Managing Director (Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianko) of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), indicated then that there was nothing wrong with the termination of the contracts of the security companies. According to the Daily Guide, Mr Gbevlo Lartey and the GACL Board were said to have circumvented laid-down rules and appointed Sohin Security, a company which had no prior experience in handling security at the airport or anywhere else. The question that begs to be asked is how a 3 month old company, with no prior security experience, headed by a major drug trafficker, passed through the scrutiny of the the national security led by Col. Gbevlo-Lartey and won the no bid contract to provide security services at an entry point such as the Kotoka International Airport and other airports in the country for five years.

In January 2013 another member of the same West African DTO Mustapha Issaka Zico, 41 was sentenced to 18 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiring to import heroin from Ghana into the United States and ordered to forfeit $110,000.

Doreen Owusu Fianko (GACL)

Zico was found guilty Jan. 25 following a three-day trial that found him to be one of the ringleaders of a multi-kilogram heroin trafficking organization in Ghana. Evidence showed that Zico and his co-conspirators paid off airport officials in Ghana to allow safe passage of the heroin out of the country; frequently from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, to Dulles International Airport and other airports around the country.

Zico was directly involved in several heroin shipments and directed the activities of previously convicted co-conspirators Edmund Darkwah, Fred Brobbey and Matilda Antwi, all of whom pled guilty. Zico shared leadership of the conspiracy with Edward Macauley, who was also convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia and sentenced to 14 yeras imprisonment.

Five defendants were extradited from Ghana to stand trial in the Eastern District of Virginia after coordinated arrests by the Ghanaian Narcotics Control Board, while other co-conspirators were arrested in New York, Maryland and Virginia on July 14, 2011. Still more defendants were charged, arrested, and extradited from Ghana in 2012. In all, 11 co-conspirators were convicted. These earlier arrests likely led to information that helped the DEA set up the sting operation that lead to the arrest of the airport security chief.

The drugs were smuggled through Dulles International Airport through a variety of methods: special compartments built into carry-on luggage, attached to underwear. In one case, the smugglers had sewn two pounds of heroin into a courier’s wig. The organization recruited Ghanaian citizens living legally in the U.S. to act as couriers, who were paid up to $15,000 per trip. Airport officials in Ghana received bribes of $2,000 or more to look the other way.
When the charges in this case were announced last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it reflects the current strategy of targeting smugglers in their home countries. The DEA has agents in more than 60 countries working international cases.

The War On Drugs- Crossing The Line

June 11, 2013, 9:08 am

≫ Next: DEA Boosts Fight Against West African Narco-Cartels

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When institutions tasked with protecting our rights and preventing corruption do not act with integrity, it is citizens that ultimately suffer.

Police corruption extends to protecting, working for, supporting or turning a blind eye to organised crime, including the trafficking of drugs, arms and human beings, and has allowed the massive expansion of these activities.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has warned that such corruption reaches to the highest levels, pointing to evidence implicating senior police officials in Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador. From 2006-2012, violence linked to the drug trade has cost the lives of an estimated 60000 , 15,000 missing and 25,000 de-placed people in Mexico alone, where 98 per cent of crimes reportedly go unpunished. But what is the story closer to home?

When the forces of law and order are compromised, law enforcement insiders refer to it as going south or crossing the line.


Mexican Cartels Seek to Exploit Corrupt Federal Agents
For a number of reasons, Mexican drug cartels have targeted CBP agents in traffickers' broad efforts to corrupt U.S. law enforcement personnel, says James Tomsheck, assistant commissioner for internal affairs at the bureau. "We are the largest law enforcement organization in the United States and much of that growth has occurred in the last five years. It creates vulnerabilities that are inevitable."

Tomsheck notes that the Border Patrol agents and customs inspectors on the front lines of the long-running battle against multinational drug cartels serve in the highest threat environment for corruption and integrity issues that law enforcement personnel face -- the South west border. "And we're doing all this at a point in time when there are clear indications there are greater efforts on the part of those who would compromise our workforce than ever before," he says.

The cartels actively engage in corrupting public officials. They recruit by exploiting weaknesses, sometimes gaining intelligence through surveillance methods usually employed by law enforcement. Cartel members have been known to observe inspectors at ports of entry using binoculars from the Mexican side of the border. Maybe an inspector has a drinking or gambling problem. Maybe he flirts with women and could be tempted to cheat on his wife. Maybe an employee is simply burned out on the job.

“If you’re an inspector and you are legitimately waving through 97 out of 100 cars anyway,” Gutierrez said, “and you realize you can make as much as your annual salary by letting the 98th car go by, it can be easy to rationalize that.”

The number of CBP corruption investigations opened by the inspector general climbed from 245 in 2006 to more than 770 this year. Corruption cases at its sister agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, rose from 66 to more than 220 over the same period. The vast majority of corruption cases involve illegal trafficking of drugs, guns, weapons and cash across the Southwest border.

29 Year Narcotics Veteran Busted For Double Dipping
The former commander of the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force will plead guilty to stealing at least $125,000 from drug proceeds seized by the unit.

Jeff Snyder, 55, embezzled money that the task force seized between June 2010 and June 2012, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance’s office.

The agreement between the government prosecutors and Snyder is a “binding plea agreement” in which both sides agreed to an 18-month federal prison sentence. That agreement has yet to be approved by a judge.

Task force members seized money suspected to be proceeds of illegal drug transactions and turned the money in to Snyder. He was responsible for depositing the money into bank accounts while condemnation proceedings were pursued through court, according to the plea agreement. Snyder was entrusted to receive the seized money, log it in task force ledger books and deposit it in task force bank accounts.

Capt. Jeff Snyder, commander of the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force Bags Up The Chronic

Snyder executed the scheme “by pocketing some or all of the funds seized during various arrests, and then failing to correctly account for those funds,” according to the plea agreement.

Former Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ted Sexton confirmed late last year that the FBI was investigating questionable accounting procedures within the task force. He said at the time that an audit conducted in November revealed discrepancies.
Snyder, who lives in Carrollton, was a well-respected 29-year veteran of the Tuscaloosa Police Department when he retired as a captain in December 2012. He was assigned to the narcotics task force in 1989 and became its commander in June 2002.


“Most law-enforcement officers serve their communities bravely and honorably each and every day,” Vance stated in the release. “Unfortunately, this defendant violated his oath, the law and the public trust he had been granted. That cannot be tolerated. The public must be able to trust its law enforcement officers.”

Judge Charged With Drugs Offence
In Belleville, Illinois, a St. Clair county judge was arrested last Friday in relation to the cocaine overdose death of another St. Clair county judge while the pair partied together at a hunting lodge in March. Judge Michael Cook, 43, who presided over the county's drug court, was charged by federal prosecutors with possession of heroin and possession of a firearm while illegally using controlled substances. 

His colleague, Judge Joe Christ died of a cocaine overdose. A St. Clair County probation officer, James Fogarty, has been charged with selling cocaine to both judges. Judge Cook had handled more than 500 criminal cases since 2010; now, those found guilty can come back and seek new trials. 

Customs Inspector Made $12,000 a Week From Drugs

It's not clear when Louis Enrique Ramirez took his first bribe. In the summer of 2005, the former customs inspector apparently began cutting deals with smugglers to allow undocumented immigrants as well as the occasional load of drugs across the South west border from Mexico into Texas. During the next three and a half years, U.S. investigators believe Ramirez pocketed $500,000 to provide safe passage for illegal immigrants and cocaine. In early 2009, Ramirez fled to Mexico after someone tipped him off that investigators had begun to unravel his scheme.

The law caught up with Ramirez late last fall when federal agents arrested him crossing the international bridge from Matamoros, Mexico, into Brownsville, Texas. A partially unsealed 13-count indictment against the 38-year-old former inspector at the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection bureau charged him with multiple counts of drug trafficking, alien smuggling, conspiracy and bribery. 

On March 3, just as jury selection for his trial was about to begin, he pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and alien smuggling and admitted he belonged to a drug trafficking organization. In addition to coordinating drug shipments through the inspection lanes he handled at the U.S. border, Ramirez conspired to bring undocumented foreigners into the United States and transport them farther "for commercial advantage and private financial gain," noted a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen convicted Ramirez and ordered him to forfeit $500,000 -- the amount of money federal agents believe Ramirez made through corruption. Ramirez was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison for allowing more than 26 pounds of cocaine to be driven through a primary inspection lane he was manning, conspiring with others to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States for money and accepting bribes,  crimes committed while he was a Customs and Border Protection inspector. 

Also named in the indictment are:

• Antonio L. Espinosa

• Jose Adolfo Sebastian Leal-Angles

• Rolando De Nova

• Felix Armando Torres-Cortina

De Nova and Torres-Cortina remain fugitives but court records show that Espinosa and Leal-Angles both already pleaded guilty to their roles in the case.

Espinoza reported in his plea agreement that he also bribed another customs officer Sergio Lopez Hernandez to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspector Sergio Lopez Hernandez, 41, has been sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for alien smuggling, bribery and drug trafficking, Hernandez was convicted April 13, 2009, following his guilty plea to conspiring to transport aliens within the U.S., bringing aliens into the U.S. for private financial gain, accepting bribes in his capacity as a government official as well as possessing with intent to distribute 15 kilograms of cocaine.

The Ramirez case and others illustrate a worrisome trend at CBP. As the bureau has ratcheted up efforts to cope with the tide of crime sweeping across the South west border, Mexican cartels have stepped up efforts to infiltrate CBP and other federal, state and local agencies responsible for policing the border. A week after Ramirez entered his guilty plea, federal agents arrested nearly a dozen members of a smuggling ring operating in the border town of Columbus, N.M. Among those netted in the raid were the mayor and police chief. According to the 84-count indictment against them, they supplied weapons to criminals in Mexico.

Thomas Frost, Homeland Security's assistant inspector general for investigations, told Senate lawmakers in 2010, "Drug trafficking organizations have purchased information to vet their members, to track investigative activity and to identify cooperative individuals" in U.S. law enforcement.

Cops Busted For Trafficking
Laredo Police Department (LPD) officer Orlando Jesus Hale, 28, has been sentenced to almost 25 years in federal prison without parole for drug trafficking and using a firearm during and in relation to the drug trafficking offence  United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today

U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez sentenced Hale this morning to 235 months for his conviction of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine between Oct. 15, 2008, and Nov. 30, 2008. He also received a consecutive 60-month prison term for using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime and possessing the firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking crime in November 2008, for a total of 295 months, or 24.5 years’ imprisonment. Immediately following today’s sentencing hearing, Judge Alvarez ordered Hale into the custody of the United States Marshals Service to begin serving his sentence pending transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated in the near future. Hale had been free on bond until today’s sentencing hearing.

Hale was convicted following a jury trial in September 2010, of conspiring with another former Laredo Police Officer, Pedro Martinez III, to escort cocaine-loaded vehicles through Laredo, Texas using their police-issued radios to monitor Laredo Police Department dispatch traffic during the escort. The firearms conviction is a result of Hale carrying a firearm during a meeting at a hotel in Laredo at which the co-conspirators discussed the details of the planned escorts with each other, and with an FBI undercover agent whom they believed was a drug trafficker.

During the trial, evidence was presented proving that Hale and then-fellow LPD officer, Pedro Martinez III, met with an FBI undercover agent posing as a drug dealer in a hotel room in Laredo on Nov. 7, 2008. During the recorded meet, Hale and Martinez discussed how the two officers could escort loads of 20 kilograms each of cocaine from south to north Laredo using their personal vehicles and police-issued radios to monitor dispatch traffic.

On Nov. 13, 2008, first Martinez, then Hale, each escorted a load vehicle during afternoon rush-hour traffic. Each vehicle contained 20 kilograms of sham cocaine. On Nov. 25, Hale and Martinez arranged to meet the pay-off person in San Antonio, Texas, to receive payment for the protective escort services they had provided. Hale and Martinez each received $1,000 from another undercover agent posing as the organization’s moneyman. Martinez, who pleaded guilty prior to trial, testified against Hale at trial.


10 Years for Retired Cop for Drug Trafficking
A federal judge has sentenced former Tulsa police Cpl. Harold R. Wells to 10 years in prison for his role in a police corruption scandal that led to dozens of convictions being overturned.
A corruption probe of the Tulsa Police Department resulted in 11 police officers being accused of criminal behaviour  Additionally, 41 people have been freed from prison or had their cases modified due to civil rights violations or potential problems with their cases. Wells was the third of four officers to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tulsa.

Wells drew the harshest sentence of the three, with U.S. District Judge Bruce Black saying he would have given Wells more time were he not 60 years old and suffering from health problems.

Wells was convicted in June on five counts: 
knowingly carrying and possessing a firearm during and in relation to drug trafficking crime;
conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substance (methamphetamine);
conspiracy to steal U.S. funds;
stealing U.S. funds;
and use of a telephone to commit a felony

Wells is 60 years old with two grown children and several grandchildren. He is a borderline diabetic who takes medication for high cholesterol and depression, Black noted. His attorneys didn't request a specific federal prison, just one that could protect a former police officer and address his medical needs.

3 Arizona Deputies Working For Chapo Guzman
Three employees of America’s self-proclaimed toughest sheriff have been arrested in a drug and human trafficking case, authorities said Tuesday.

Francisco "Lorenzo" Arce-Torres

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said a deputy and two female detention officers at the sheriff’s largest jail facility were among 12 people taken into custody and accused of being in a Phoenix-based international drug smuggling ring.


Arpaio said Hernandez is eight months' pregnant with the child of another suspect arrested Tuesday, Francisco "Lorenzo" Arce-Torres, who is described in court records as a member of the Sinaloa drug cartel and the leader of the Phoenix-based drug-trafficking organization at the heart of the probe.

Deputy Ruben Navarette, Hernandez, and detention officer Sylvia Najera face felony charges. Seven other sheriff’s employees were being investigated for their possible involvement.

The group mostly moved heroin, according to investigators, and officials suspect each of the arrested sheriff's employees played a crucial role in moving the drugs and hiding the illicit profits. Authorities say the Sinaloa cartel ring moved about $56,000 worth of heroin a week through the Valley.

Francisco "Lorenzo" Arce-Torres, who authorities say was the ringleader, arranged for heroin to be brought into the Valley after his brothers produced the drug on the family's ranch in Mexico, according to Superior Court and Justice Court documents filed Tuesday.

Once the drugs arrived in Arizona, they were shipped to two houses in the West Valley, where the heroin was diluted to create more product, investigators said in the court documents.

Hernandez's brother, Duran Joseph Alcantar, who was also among those arrested, is suspected of operating one of the stash houses, and investigators believe Hernandez coordinated the pick-up and delivery of heroin from the drug houses.

Hernandez, 27, Najera, 25, and Deputy Navarrette, 37

Investigators say they believe Navarrette helped the ring by fortifying Arce-Torres' home with surveillance cameras, registering drug-courier vehicles in his name and laundering money.

Investigators believe that, in addition to laundering money and doing other chores for the ring, Navarrette himself was smuggling humans.

Navarette admitted to passing information about the sheriff’s crime-prevention operations to the Sinaloa drug cartel,  Arpaio said. The deputy also was accused of being part of a separate human trafficking ring that smuggled illegal immigrants from Arizona to California.

Detectives searching Navarette’s home found two illegal immigrants inside, Arpaio said. Navarette, who was once assigned to sheriff’s human smuggling unit and was cross-trained as a federal immigration agent, regularly smuggled loads of illegal immigrants, Arpaio said.

“We have enough violence without having moles on my own organization that put my deputies in danger,” Arpaio said.

"He repeatedly supplied details about the illegal-immigration crime-suppression operation to leaders of the drug-trafficking organization," Arpaio said. "This action placed numerous deputies, reserves and posse volunteers in harm's way while they were volunteering and conducting operations."

Navarette was an active member of the Sinaloa drug cartel  helping launder money, transport drugs and even adding security cameras to his lieutenants home, according to court documents. The operation produced heroin at a ranch in Mexico, and brought it to Phoenix in loads of 5 to 10 pounds each, authorities said.


As part of the investigation, officers on Tuesday seized 10 pounds of heroin, nearly $200,000 in cash, weapons, vehicles and stolen property.

Hernandez, 28, was found with $16,000 cash when she was arrested Tuesday after arriving for work, Arpaio said. She was held on $2 million cash bond on charges that include transporting drugs and money laundering.

Navarette was arrested as he arrived for work Monday morning. He appeared in court Tuesday on charges including human smuggling, money laundering, controlling an illegal enterprise and conspiracy, and was ordered held on $1 million cash bond.

Najera’s bond amount wasn't immediately available, but she was booked on charges of money laundering and controlling a criminal enterprise. She refused to talk to investigators.

“No one is above the law, and apparently no one if beyond the reach of drug trafficking organizations in Mexico,” Montgomery said. “It’s just one more illustration … that the border is not secure. We have cross national transportation of drugs and illegal aliens that has now involved law enforcement officials here. And they've been able to do this and be ongoing in their efforts.” 


30 Years For CBP Officer
Edwin Disla, 34, who worked at Miami International Airport as a Customs and Border Protection officer, agreed to transport heroin and cocaine from Puerto Rico to either New York or Miami. On Feb. 9, 2007, Disla delivered 10 kilograms of what he believed to be cocaine to individuals in Hallandale, Fla. 

While transporting the sham cocaine through the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico and Miami International Airport, Disla used his law enforcement authority to bypass security. On March 28, 2007, Disla was arrested in Puerto Rico after having received duffel bags containing 25 kilograms of sham cocaine and 20 kilograms of sham heroin from undercover federal agents. Disla was convicted in January 2008 on three counts related to drug trafficking and was sentenced in April 2008 to 31 Years in prison.

CBP Officer Imported Cocaine
Walter Golembiowski, 66, was sentenced in September 2009 to 10 years in prison followed by four years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to import narcotics and two bribery-related conspiracy counts. 

He was arrested in May 2008 after a long-term investigation identified a number of individuals, including Golembiowski, who assisted in clearing shipments of hashish and other contraband into the U.S. through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. In addition, these individuals regularly accepted and solicited bribes to permit shipments to pass through Customs and Border Protection without inspection. Golembiowski retired from CBP in June 2008.


 CBP Officer Cocaine Trafficking
Wanda Hopkins, 47, was sentenced in February 2006 to nearly eight years in prison for selling cocaine and using a gun while trafficking drugs. She and her husband were arrested for selling cocaine and using a gun while trafficking drugs. 

They were caught transporting more than 250 grams of cocaine to Louisiana from Texas. She flashed her badge to arresting officers, who found a marijuana cigarette and tracts of cocaine in her credentials.

Feds Sister Act Cocaine Ring
Elizabeth Moran-Toala 38, pleaded guilty for her role in a drug smuggling conspiracy in which her sister, Cindy Moran-Sanchez, also was implicated. Moran-Toala was sentenced in June 2010 to 10 years of incarceration and five years of probation for her role in the conspiracy. Moran-Toala initially was arrested in February 2008 on a conspiracy charge related to the unlawful use of a government computer and conspiracy to import narcotics. 

In May 2009, Moran-Toala was arrested again as the result of a four-count superseding indictment against her, Moran-Sanchez and Moran-Sanchez's husband, a Transportation Security Administration supervisor, for their role in facilitating the entry of narcotics into the United States.  The sister former Customs and Border Protection Officer Cindy Moran-Sanchez, 32, was sentenced in September 2010 to 14 years in prison and five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine after pleading guilty for her role in a conspiracy to import heroin and cocaine into the country from the Dominican Republic.

Big Sister

In May 2009, Cindy Moran-Sanchez, her husband Jose Sanchez, and her sister Elizabeth Moran-Toala, were charged in a superseding indictment for their participation in a conspiracy to import and distribute heroin and cocaine. Moran-Sanchez and Moran-Toala used their positions as CBP officers, and their access to government databases, to facilitate the entry of drug couriers traveling from the Dominican Republic to the United States carrying suitcases filled with either heroin or cocaine.

Lil Sister

Jose Sanchez, in turn, used his position as a TSA supervisor to ensure that the couriers and their drug-laden suitcases, successfully made their way on board domestic flights bound from Fort Lauderdale to New York, where the drugs would be delivered to their ultimate purchasers

In 2006, the defendants travelled to theDominican Republic and formulated a plan with a prior drug associate of Moran-Sanchez to use their respective positions within DHS to facilitate the importation of cocaine and heroin into the United States, and thereafter, to points within the United States.

As part of this plan, the defendants agreed that the associate, who had previously been deported from the United States for a drug offence  would re-enter the United States using a false identity and that he would thereafter recruit couriers to travel to the Dominican Republic, retrieve the illegal narcotics and return with the narcotics to the United States.

Once the narcotics arrived in the United States, Elizabeth Moran-Toala and Jose Sanchez would use their positions and contacts at CBP to ensure, to the best of their ability, that the couriers and illegal narcotics passed through the customs enclosure at the Fort Lauderdale Airport without being detected by law enforcement agents and thereafter passed through TSA checkpoints to be placed on domestic commercial aircraft. The group agreed that the associate would pay the defendants a per kilogram fee for each kilogram of either cocaine or heroin which was imported successfully as part of this scheme.

In September 2006, the associate re-entered the United States using a false identity. After re-entering the United States, he and others recruited couriers, as planned, to travel to the Dominican Republic and return with narcotics. Through the assistance of the defendants, several couriers successfully entered the United States with cocaine and heroin, which was later flown on domestic flights to the New York-area. Five couriers were intercepted. These interdictions resulted in the seizure of approximately 30 kilograms of heroin and fifty kilograms of cocaine.

In January 2009, the defendants' drug associate was arrested. The defendants were arrested in February 2009 following an undercover investigation, during which they assisted an undercover officer in passing a suitcase filled with 10 kilograms of purported heroin through the TSA terminal checkpoint and loading that suitcase onto a US Airways flight. Federal agents arrested the defendants after they accepted $25,000 as a fee for their assistance.

Moran-Sanchez and her husband were arrested in February 2009. In July 2009, Moran-Sanchez’s husband pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced to 11 years in prison with five years of supervised release.

Customs Supervisor Moved Thousands Of Kg Of Cocaine
A former U.S. Customs supervisor, who authorities say helped smuggle tens of thousands of kilos of cocaine through Newark's seaport and airport, was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison yesterday in a drug case the judge called the worst he has ever seen involving a government official.

In imposing sentence on Jorge Reyeros, U.S. District Judge William Bassler said anyone who misuses their office "in such a heinous way has to suffer the consequences."

Bassler, sitting in Newark, also sentenced Reyeros' older brother, Juan, to nearly 19 years in prison for helping in the crime.

Coleman is a low security facility

While a federal jury specifically found the men guilty last January of conspiracy to bring more than 150 kilograms of cocaine into the country at Port Elizabeth, prosecutors said they were also responsible for allowing tens of thousands of kilos of cocaine into the country.


The allegations are that, Jorge, Juan, Uribe, and Garravito-Garcia agreed to import cocaine into the United States from Ecuador, concealed in cargo containers filled with produce bound for Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.  Jorge unlawfully accessed a Customs computer database in to research a company his co-conspirators had identified as a potential recipient of the smuggled cocaine.

Uribe testified at trial on behalf of the government.   When the trial began, Uribe was in a Colombian prison, where he was serving a sentence for drug trafficking and conspiracy.   He was, however, extradited to the United States during the trial and immediately entered into a plea agreement pursuant to which he agreed to cooperate with the government.  

At trial, Uribe testified that he became involved in the conspiracy when Juan asked him for help identifying an American company through which 400 to 500 kilograms of cocaine could be imported into the United States. Uribe stated that Juan told him that Jorge was a Customs inspector and could use that position to ensure containers containing drugs could enter the United States without being inspected.

Uribe described how he sought the help of Garravito-Garcia to find an American company suitable to receive the smuggled cocaine. Garravito-Garcia, in turn, contacted an American acquaintance, James Lagrotteria, for assistance. Unbeknownst to the conspirators, however, Lagrotteria was an informant for Customs and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”).

Garravito-Garcia introduced Uribe to Lagrotteria in Colombia in March and the three men met to discuss plans to import cocaine into the United States. At that meeting, Lagrotteria was tasked with identifying an American company suitable for receiving the imported cocaine, particularly one with a warehouse in New York or New Jersey and a history of importing produce.   

Lagrotteria was told that the conspirators were working with a Customs official  and that the official planned to check a Customs computer database to see if any company Lagrotteria identified had been flagged by Customs as having previously imported contraband.

In April, Customs and DEA agents fabricated records for a fictitious company they named “TJ Import Produce.” They put the records in a Customs database and, on April 8, at the behest of the government agents, Lagrotteria informed Garravito-Garcia that he had identified TJ Import Produce as a potential recipient of the cocaine the conspirators hoped to import.  

In brief remarks to the judge before he was sentenced, Jorge Reyeros declared flatly, "I'm innocent." Bassler rejected that declaration as "nonsense." "Jorge Reyeros is not an innocent man," the judge said. "Unfortunately, Jorge Reyeros is a criminal." Bassler said he has "never been faced with a conspiracy involving a government official that approached" this case. The brothers immigrated to the United States from Colombia and are naturalized U.S. citizens, officials said.

Jorge Reyeros, 54, spent more than 20 years with U.S. Customs, working his way up to supervisor with duties at the seaport and Newark Liberty International Airport. Since arriving from Colombia in 1970, he had lived an immigrant's dream: He became a citizen, got married and had three children, purchased homes in Queens and Miami and attained a top job with U.S. Customs. Juan Reyeros, 56, had maintained a home in Miami, but also spent time in Colombia, authorities said. Juan Reyeros is currently residing at the The Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) - Low in Coleman is a low security facility housing male inmates in Florida. He is due for release in 2024.

Fed Was Cocaine Trafficking For Over 20 Years
U.S. Border Patrol agent will spend the next 70 years behind bars for allowing drugs to pass trough his checkpoints. Arturo Arzate, Jr. was sentenced Tuesday.

In March, Arzate pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to posses cocaine and two counts of bribery of a public official. He has a long record of allowing drugs to pass into the United States. In 2006, Arzate received $16,000 for allowing vehicles packed with cocaine to pass through his station without inspections. He also admitted that he had been paid lesser amounts for allowing drugs to pass through various checkpoints in the El Paso area since 1990. 

On more than one occasion, Arzate also personally transported more than 100 pounds of cocaine through a checkpoint and delivered it to a coconspirator in Van Horn, Texas. Upon sentencing the defendant, Judge Montalvo stated, “I agree with the Government. By any other name, this is treason.”

According to the criminal complaint, Arzate charged $50 for every pound of marijuana and $1,000 for every kilogram of cocaine he allowed to pass through his checkpoint between El Paso and Carlsbad. However, he was unaware that one of the smugglers with whom he was working was an undercover officer. Arzate was indicted in 2006 but failed to appear at his initial hearing and fled to Mexico. He was arrested by Mexican officials and extradited to the United States to stand trial. 


Bribery/Cocaine Trafficking/Human Smuggling
Former Customs and Border Protection Officer Jose Montano Jr., 34, was sentenced in March 2010 to nearly 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $300 fine and to forfeit $134,000 after he pleaded guilty to charges of bribery, cocaine trafficking 200 kg and human smuggling. 

While employed as a CBP officer at the Brownsville Gateway Port of Entry in south Texas, Montano notified a smuggler of his inspection lane assignment. The smuggler would relay this information to drivers, who would then drive through Montano's lane without inspection. The drivers carried illegal immigrants, cocaine or both. Montano initially was paid $500 for each smuggled immigrant, but later received between $8,000 and $10,000 per transaction. Montano was arrested April 2, 2009, and resigned immediately.

Border Patrol Officer Gets 14 Years
David Duque Jr., 37, was sentenced to 14 years in prison without parole for illegally transferring identification documents and agreeing to use his position to help smuggle cocaine into the United States. 

Duque sold documents – including passports, birth certificates, green cards and Social Security cards – to a source who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement officers. He also knowingly helped a cocaine-laden vehicle successfully pass through the Falfurrias checkpoint in return for $5,000. Before the sentencing hearing concluded, the court revoked Duque’s bond and ordered him immediately into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to begin serving his sentence.

NY Officer Gets 25 Years For Armed Robbery, Stealing 250 Kilograms of Cocaine 
Emmanuel Tavarez, 31, was a one-man crime wave. He was also a cop. 

The New York City police officer was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for robbing drug dealers with a gang that stole drugs and cash. An eight-year NYPD veteran, Tavarez participated in a violent robbery crew responsible for more than 100 armed robberies of narcotics traffickers that netted more than 250 kilograms of cocaine and $1 million in drug proceeds.

Emmanuel Tavarez, 31, an eight-year NYPD veteran, would flash his police badge as he and his heavily armed crew stormed the hideouts of at least 100 drug dealers in New York, Philadelphia, and Bridgeport, Conn., in a spree than began at least a decade ago, prosecutors said.


Tavarez admitted he played a role in robberies in Long Island, Pennsylvania and a home invasion in Connecticut in which he held a woman and her young children at gunpoint with his service weapon. He provided handcuffs, raid jackets and duplicate badges to his fellow perps.
"At the same time you were apprehending felons, you were a felon yourself," Townes said. "You had a fine family, you made more than $95,000 in 2008 and yet you committed these crimes.
Tavarez, a one-time major league baseball prospect, joined the robbery crew while he was in the Police Academy. The eight-year veteran was being approved for a tax-free disability pension when he was arrested.

He admitted receiving at least $80,000 for his share from a drug robbery and using the cash to buy a Mercedes Benz. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon said the victims of the robberies were too scared to appear in court for the sentencing. One victim described the thugs in a letter to the judge as "terrorists."

NYPD Cop Robbed 800kg Of Cocaine
In New York City, a former NYPD officer was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for his role in a string of more than a hundred violent robberies of drug dealers that netted more than $4 million in drug proceeds. Jorge Arbaje-Diaz, 31, was part of a 15-person gang that posed as police officers and robbed dealers up and down the East Coast. Only one other member was actually a police officer. 

Arbaje-Diaz would use his status as a police officer to gain access to homes, then crew members would bind and torture their victims to find out where drugs and money were kept. Arbaje-Diaz was arrested and pleaded guilty to one count each of robbery conspiracy and drug trafficking conspiracy in May 2010.


Jorge Arbaje-Diaz, 33, admitted he wore his police uniform and badge and wielded his service pistol during some of the heists, and eventually stole more than 1,650 pounds of cocaine and $4 million in illicit drug proceeds from dealers.

NYPD officer Jorge Arbaje-Diaz told a court that he turned to a life of crime so that he could make the payments on his house.


According to prosecutors, Arbaje-Diaz used his status as a police officer to gain access to narcotics traffickers' houses. Once inside, crew members bound and tortured some of their victims, demanding to know where drugs and money were kept, prosecutors said.

When brought before the Brooklyn Federal Court to plead guilty to one count each of robbery conspiracy and narcotics-trafficking conspiracy., Arbaje-Diaz admitted in a barely audible voice, "When I committed this criminal conduct, I was an officer of the New York City Police Department. At times, I committed these robberies while I was wearing my police uniform and badge...At times, I also would brandish my off-duty revolver and use my New York Police Department handcuffs to restrain victims".

Prosecutor Jeremy Shockett noted that Arbaje-Diaz participated in half a dozen robberies, including one while in uniform and on duty, and another in which a child was held at gunpoint. 
He said: 'Some would say he had the American Dream ... and he threw that away in extraordinary fashion.'

"You are the poster boy for a sentence that will deter others from the kinds of acts you engaged in," Brooklyn Judge Nicholas Garaufis said.

Drug Task Force Boss Drug Trafficking
In San Francisco, the former commander of an East Bay drug task force was indicted Monday on a slew of federal corruption charges along with Chris Butler a friend who is a private investigator and former cop.. Norman Wielsch, the former commander of the Contra Costa County Central Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET), and private eye Chris Butler face numerous counts in an ongoing scandal that has already enveloped other members of the squad. 

They allegedly ripped-off marijuana and methamphetamine from the evidence room and resold it, provided protection to a bordello, and committed armed robberies of prostitutes, among other corrupt activities made possible by Wielsch's command position with the task force. They are charged with narcotics conspiracy, two counts of methamphetamine distribution, five counts of marijuana distribution, four counts of theft from programs receiving federal funds, three counts of civil rights conspiracy, and two counts of extortion.

On Tuesday in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong sentenced Butler, 51, to eight years in federal prison after the disgraced former police officer admitted his role in a stunning array of dirty deeds that included seven felony counts related to dealing drugs, framing men for drunken-driving arrests, and opening a brothel in Pleasant Hill that masqueraded as a massage parlour  Butler told prosecutors his co-defendant, Norman Wielsch, 51, the former commander of a state anti drug task force, protected the house of prostitution and profited from it.

Chris Butler On TV Show

One of Butler's most trusted employees agreed to wear a wire and videotape Butler and Wielsch negotiating the sale of a pound of methamphetamine. After their arrests in February 2011, details of Butler's tangled web of criminal activity in Contra Costa County unfolded, leading to the federal indictments that also roped in two Richmond police officers and a deputy sheriff. San Ramon police officer Louis Lombardi was arrested Wednesday morning in connection to the ongoing scandal involving former Concord private investigator Chris Butler and former Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET) commander Norm Wielsch. 

Lombardi, a Discovery Bay resident, was charged with grand theft and possession of stolen property. Lombardi also faces accessory charges for aiding and abetting and conspiracy, as well as possession of an illegal assault rifle. Lombardi joins former Contra Costa Deputy Sheriff Stephen Tanabe as law enforcement officers implicated in the Butler/Wielsch scandal. Tanabe was arrested on March 4, and later charged with a range of alleged criminal activity, including conspiracy with Butler, and possession of an illegal assault weapon.  

Sheriff Stephen Tanabe

Cop Jacks Heroin Shipment
Philadelphia police officer convicted by a jury in March in a plot to steal 300 grams of heroin and resell it for cash, was sentenced to more than 16 years in a federal lockup this morning.

Mark Williams, 28, was found guilty by a jury on March 4 of conspiracy to distribute heroin, distribution of heroin, attempted robbery, using a firearm in relation to a violent crime and related offences.

Two other ex-Philly cops convicted in the case - James Venziale, 32, and Robert Snyder, 31 - were sentenced in May to 3.5 and 13 years behind bars, respectively. (Venziale testified against Williams at his trial. The pair at one time were partners in the 39th Police District in North Philadelphia.)

Authorities said that on May 14, 2010, Williams and Venziale, 32, while on duty, conducted a sham traffic stop at Somerset and North Broad, and made it appear they had arrested convicted drug dealer and co-defendant Angel Ortiz.

Ortiz, who had gotten the heroin from a drug supplier's courier, was driven a short distance and released. Williams subsequently received $3,000 cash, which he believed came from the sale of the heroin, prosecutors said. (The drug heist was actually part of a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover investigation.)

Prosecutors said "pure greed" was the motivating factor for Williams. The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III was within the advisory guideline range of 16 to 19 years. Valvo had sought a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence. Williams was also convicted for his role in plotting a planned robbery of an individual he believed was a mafioso but who was really an undercover FBI agent posing as a money launderer. That heist was later aborted at the behest of the FBI.


Texas Cop Escorts Cocaine Shipments
In Laredo, Texas, a Webb County deputy constable was arrested Monday by FBI agents on charges he acted as an escort for a cocaine trafficker. Eduardo Garcia, 44, was indicted for escorting loads of cocaine through Laredo for a local trafficker for $500 a pop. 

Unfortunately for Garcia, the trafficker became a DEA informant and flipped on him, allowing the DEA to record meetings where they would discuss load arrangements. Garcia, wearing his badge and driving a law enforcement van, would escort the loads through the city. The snitch also asked Garcia to run a pair of license plates through a state law enforcement data base, which he did. He's looking at up to 20 years in prison on three bribery charges and five more on one count of unauthorized access to protected computer information.


Cops Hijack Dealers Cash and Stash
A former Philadelphia police officer has pleaded guilty to corruption charges, and his partner is 
expected to plead guilty tomorrow, in a case the prosecutor calls a tragedy that makes much more difficult the work of other officers doing the job every day and putting their lives on the line.
Former police officer Christopher Luciano, 23, has pleaded guilty to robbery, conspiracy, possession with intent to deliver, and other offences   He and his partner plotted to rob a drug courier, he admits.

They worked together with a drug dealer and another cohort of the drug dealer to rob a person they believed was a drug courier,” Diviny says. “They essentially threw their lot in with the drug dealers out there and robbed somebody who was in the drug business and shared the proceeds with the drug dealer.”

The arrests follow the recent formation of a new unit in Philadelphia Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit. The unit was formed following other recent drug corruption arrests in the department, including one in which two officers were charged with stealing drugs from dealers in order to resell them back to another dealer. At least five Philadelphia officers have been accused or convicted in the past year of trying to rob drug dealers. A sixth officer is charged with stealing $825 from a tavern where a colleague was slain

Cop Helps Move Coke
In Laredo, Texas, a former Laredo police officer was sentenced August 4 to 6 ½ years in prison for helping a drug trafficker move and store cocaine. Pedro Martinez III, 34, agreed to escort loads of cocaine in exchange for payment from undercover FBI and BATF agents he thought were smugglers and recruited fellow officer Orlando Hale to help out. He escorted three loads and Hale escorted two, with the pair receiving $1,000 for each load. The undercover agents also persuaded Martinez to lead them to a cocaine supplier, who has already pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and awaits sentencing. Martinez testified against Hale when Hale took his case to trial last year. Hale lost and got 24 ½ years. Martinez pleaded to bribery charges.

Police Chief Working for Mexican Juarez Cartel
The City of Columbus, N.M. is in bad shape. It's $600,000 in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. The financial problems come on the heels of the arrest of the town's mayor, a trustee and the police chief -- all accused on drug and weapons charges in March.

Former Chief Angelo Vega had been arrested in March along with a former town trustee, a former town mayor, and 10 others after being indicted on an 84-count gun-running indictment. The defendants purchased guns favoured by the Mexican Cartels, including AK-47-type pistols, which are weapons resembling AK-47 rifles but with shorter barrels and without rear stocks, and American Tactical 9 mm pistols.

The defendants obtained firearms from Chaparral Guns by falsely claiming they were the actual purchasers of the firearms, when in fact they were acting as “straw purchaser” who were buying the firearms on behalf of others, the indictment alleges.

Law enforcement officers seized 40 AK-47 type pistols, 1,580 rounds of 7.62 ammunition, and 30 high-capacity magazines from the defendants before they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The indictment alleges that 12 firearms previously purchased by the defendants later were found in Mexico and were traced back to these defendants.

The former Columbus police chief pleaded guilty August 25 to conspiring to run guns to a Mexican drug cartel.

Vega earned more than $10,000 from last October through March by conducting counter-surveillance for La Linea, the enforcement arm of the Juarez Cartel, using a town vehicle to run guns to Mexico, and purchasing thousands of dollars worth of body armour  boots, helmets, and clothing, including bulletproof vests for a La Linea leader. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy, aiding in the smuggling of firearms, and extortion under colour of the law. Vega and his co-conspirators used their positions to traffic around 200 guns to Mexico, including assault rifles.
He faces up to 35 years in federal prison.

Elite Cop Squad Nabbed
In Chicago, a former Chicago police officer was sentenced September 7 to 12 years in prison for being part of a group of cops in the department's elite Special Operations Section who carried out armed robberies, home invasions, and other crimes across the city. Jerome Finnigan was considered the ringleader in a group of officers who targeted mostly drug dealers for robberies to seize drugs and cash, which the cops then pocketed. 

Finnigan was once a highly-decorated officer who solved crimes and saved lives. But at some point, the Chicago police officer went rogue. He became the ringleader of a group of cops who shook down alleged drug dealers, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, and lied in bogus reports. Some of those shake downs - one of which was caught on a South west Side bar surveillance camera - were extraordinarily bold.


Seven other SOS members have already pleaded guilty to state charges, but Finnigan and three others were indicted on federal charges in April. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder another officer prepared to testify against him and to tax charges related to the money he stole.

Latin Kings

Cops Taking Orders From Latin Kings
Two Chicago police officers who are alleged to have been paid by the Latin Kings street gang to shake down rivals of drugs and cash were among 15 people added to a growing federal probe of gangs operating on the South-east Side of Chicago and Indiana cities near the Illinois border.

According to the charges, Officers Alex Guerrero and Antonio Martinez acted on orders from Sisto "Suge" Bernal, using their police powers in ruses that targeted the alleged gang leader's drug rivals from 2004 to 2006. They raided the homes of drug dealers in Chicago and Indiana, seizing drugs, cash and firearms that they later gave to Bernal, according to the charges.

Another time the officers staged a traffic stop of Bernal as he was in the middle of a deal with a cocaine trafficker, according to the charges. They took the drugs and later handed them over to Bernal, authorities said. Each time, Bernal is alleged to have given them several thousand dollars.

"Gang bangers are more and more adopting the tactics of the drug cartels when dealing with police and government officials."

The Latin Kings enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects and associates through murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, assault and threats against those who violate the rules or pose a threat to the Latin Kings.  Members are required to follow the orders of higher-ranking members, including taking on assignments often referred to as “missions.”

If this is true, police face a new and serious threat. One of local street gangs infiltrating their organizations to commit crimes, often times using a uniform, badge and service revolver. This is very scary thing to think about.

The thought of such a thing is not only revolting to the core but very disturbing at many different levels. One retired police officer in Charlotte N.C., who agreed to comment about police corruption (in exchange that I do not use his name) said this: "Such things are rarely talked about today. Nevertheless, they do happen."

In the past, it was more commonplace?, I said. He quickly corrected me by saying "no" - that "corruption has always been around. "That’s why we have internal affairs who investigate such matters", he said. Today however with the combination of money and drugs the allure is proving deadly for some in law enforcement.

According to local Drug Enforcement Administration officials, when it comes down to illegal drugs in the Midwest, there is only one source: the Mexican cartels. Moreover, the Latin Kings get the drugs for resale from the "narcos".

The Justice Department just released an annual report on "gangs" that is even more sobering than in other recent years.

The National Gang Threat Assessment 2011 report presents a terrifying picture of street gangs as major players in drug trafficking, human smuggling and prostitution, among other crimes.

Within the United States, according to the report, there are some 33,000 gangs, with a total membership exceeding 1.4 million. That is a huge number of people.

They are on the street, in prison, out of prison, in outlaw motorcycle groups and in the military. That’s a 40 percent increase in gang membership from 2009.

In the Chicago case, the dirty cops were arrested and dealt with but not before they showed us a future trend, we are seeing across the nation. Corruption of this type is no longer limited to just the border states of Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas - it has also made in roads to major cities around the United States where there is a huge demand for narcotics.

Border Agents Working With Mexican Cartel
In Tucson, Arizona, a Border Patrol agent and an Arizona prison guard were arrested last Thursday on charges they had conspired to smuggle drugs into the US. Border Agent Ivhan Herrera-Chiang and corrections officer Michael Lopez are charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. Herrera-Chiang had been part of the Border Patrol's Smuggling Interdiction Group since March 2011, but was actually acting as a middle man between Mexican drug traffickers and Lopez. He is accused of monitoring Border Patrol radio and agent locations and notifying Lopez where the smuggling effort should occur. Both men are reported to have made at least partial confessions.

According to the feds, Herrera would "obtain and disclose sensitive information--including sensor maps, combinations to gates located near the U.S/Mexican border, computer records concerning prior drug seizures, and the identity of confidential informants--to which he had access by virtue of his membership in a Border Patrol intelligence unit."

In November, Lopez allegedly told a confidential source that a “rat” had infiltrated the drug organization and that Lopez wanted him killed. Lopez told the source that Herrera would provide a photo of the “rat,” so a hit man could identify him, according to the complaint. Solomon said Lopez’s drug buyer was actually an undercover agent.

According to the complaint, the undercover agent requested information in September on a drug seizure from a vehicle at the San Luis Port of Entry. Lopez told the agent that Herrera could get the information from databases he uses as a Border Patrol agent, but it would cost $500. If convicted, Lopez and Herrera face up to life in prison and a $10 million fine.

Cop Moving Weight
A former veteran Houston police sergeant who took a bribe and used his patrol car to escort a load of cocaine - while clad in his uniform - was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole.

Leslie Aikens 47, was convicted by a jury of corruption in November after being snared by FBI agents and Texas Rangers working on a tip he was in the pocket of drug traffickers.

"Fifteen years is a long time on the federal side," prosecutor James McAlister said Thursday.

Aikens had been with HPD for 19 years and had been assigned to the jail division.

Suspecting he was in cahoots with the traffickers, authorities set up an undercover sting and secretly recorded Aikens agreeing to escort the vehicle and then carrying out the deed, the prosecutor said. He escorted about 15 pounds of cocaine from just outside Houston to inside Loop 610 before peeling off and continuing his official duties.

The word "cocaine" was never used during any recorded conversations, but Aikens knew what he was doing to make the $2,000 he was paid, McAlister said. Witness assisted working with authorities. A few days after the sting, he was arrested when he reported to work.

Aikens did not testify during his trial, but his lawyer, Robert A. Jones of Houston, said Thursday that Aikens didn't know drugs were involved and thought he was escorting a load of beer.

Aikens was led to believe the drugs were coming to Houston from the U.S.-Mexico border and needed to get into the city without being stopped by law enforcement. The case was made with the help of a cooperating witness 




LA airport TSA Security  'Ran Drug-Ring'
Four current and former security screeners at Los Angeles international airport have been arrested and charged with drug-trafficking and bribery.

The four accepted cash to allow large shipments of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana through X-ray machines, the US justice department said.

The charges allege 22 separate payments of up to $2,400 (£1,500) allowed drug-runners to bypass airport security. A prosecutor said they "placed greed above the nation's security needs".

"The allegations in this case describe a significant breakdown of the screening system," Andre Birotte said.

"Airport screeners act as a vital checkpoint for homeland security, and air travellers should believe in the fundamental integrity of security systems at our nation's airports."

Two of the four accused are current employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), while the other two used to work for the organisation. The current employees, John Whitfield, 23, and Capeline McKinney, 25, are accused of allowing shipments of more than 20kg (44lb) to pass through a screening area while they were on shift.

Joy White, 27

Former TSA screener Joy White, 27, is accused of a similar offence, while Naral Richardson, 30, is alleged to have made arrangements for shipments to pass unhindered. Other individuals named in the indictment are accused of being part of the smuggling ring, several working as drug mules.

Special Agent Briane Grey of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said the accused "traded on their positions at one the world's most crucial airport security checkpoints".

The TSA, created in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, is part of the US Department of Homeland Security and has responsibility for screening millions air passengers and huge quantities of luggage and freight each year.

The agency faces frequent criticism from passengers who accuse screeners of over-zealous physical examinations. Over the past week an account posted on Facebook accusing agents of requiring a pat-down of a four-year-old girl has put the TSA back in the spotlight.

A former head of the TSA, Kip Hawley, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the US security system was "broken" and needed root-and-branch reform.

Two Texas Deputy In FBI Custody
In Rio Grande City, Texas, two South Texas deputies were charged last Friday with trying to swap automatic weapons to be sent to Mexico in exchange for cocaine and marijuana. They are also charged with taking more than $10,000 in bribes from an underground casino owner. Starr County Sheriff's Deputy Nazario Solis III and 26-year-old Jason Munsell the second deputy face six drug, bribery, and extortion counts. Solis and the other deputy are charged with one count of attempting to possess cocaine for distribution and two counts of attempting to possess marijuana for distribution. They're looking at up to 40 years on the cocaine charge.

Cops Hired As Security For Cocaine Shipments
In McAllen, Texas, four South Texas law-men were arrested late last week on charges they accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to guard shipments of cocaine. Mission Police Officer Jonathan Trevino, 29, and Hidalgo County Sheriff's deputies Fabian Rodriguez, 28, and Gerardo Duran, 30, were arrested last Friday, while Mission Police Officer Alexis Espinosa was arrested a day earlier. 

Alexis Espinoza(2nd from the left) Jonathan Trevino(2nd on the right)

All four were members of an anti-drug trafficking task force called the Panama Unit, but are accused of instead providing protection for traffickers. Trevino is the son of Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Hidalgo. Federal prosecutors said they received a tip in August that task force members had been stealing drugs and set up a sting. The sting resulted in Duran and another task force member escorting 20 kilograms of cocaine north from McAllen, for which they were paid $4,000. The other task force members earned thousands more dollars for escorting four more cocaine shipments in November. 


Jonathan Treviño works as a narcotics investigator paid by Mission police assigned to the Panama Unit. Alexis Espinoza also works alongside the sheriff’s son at Mission police as a task force officer assigned to ICE.

Widespread allegations of wrongdoing involving Jonathan Treviño have circulated among local police departments for years, but they have failed to see light — until Wednesday.
Federal agents have been investigating the local task force since at least July, focusing on reports of drug loads stolen from traffickers only to be resold on the black market. It's unclear what the actual charges are, but all four were being held on $100,000 bonds.

130 PR Police Arrested For Cocaine 
A former Puerto Rico police officer was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday for his role in providing security for drug deals in an FBI sting in which he received $2,000 per transaction, authorities said. Javier A. Diaz Castro, 30, was convicted in December of two counts of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine,  and two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug transaction, a prosecutor said.

Members of the Puerto Rico P.D

Operation Guard Shack was a two-year investigation into law enforcement corruption in Puerto Rico, which came to a dramatic climax on October 6, 2010 with a series of pre dawn raids that led to arrests of over 130 members of the Puerto Rico Police Department as well as municipal departments and the Puerto Rico Corrections Department. Law enforcement officers in Puerto Rico were providing protection and other services to drug traffickers. Over 1,000 agents of the FBI conducted the raids — accusing police officers of aiding drug traffickers.

Those charged with drug trafficking crimes and the use of a firearm in the commission of those crimes include 61 officers from the Puerto Rico Police Department, 16 officers from other municipal police departments, a dozen Puerto Rico Department of Corrections officers, members of the National Guard, and two U.S. Army soldiers. They all face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Brigette Jones

Federal Officer Busted In Cocaine Ring
Brigette Jones, 49, of the Bronx, N.Y., formerly a Transportation Security Administration officer based at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., was sentenced today by United States District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven to 45 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for accepting cash in exchange for facilitating the transportation of illegal narcotics and narcotics trafficking proceeds through airport security without detection.  Jones, two other TSA officers, a former Westchester County Police officer and a former Florida State Trooper have pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the investigation.

U.S. Border Officer Gets 20 Years For Corruption, Smuggling Drugs
 U.S. Customs employee is headed to federal prison for 20 years after being convicted of corruption and smuggling charges in El Paso, Texas. Martha Alicia Garnica, 43, a former Customs and Border Protection officer, conspired to smuggle marijuana and undocumented migrants into the United States and bribed or attempted to bribe fellow officers, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement.

These sorts of cases are more common than readers might think. U.S. Homeland Security officials told a Senate panel in March that Mexican drug trafficking groups aggressively attempt to recruit border agents to allow narcotics and human smuggling through ports of entry. The Associated Press tallied 80 corruption-related convictions among enforcement officials along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2007, and 129 arrests of agents on corruption-related charges in all ports since 2003.

DEA Agent Sentenced To 80 Years For Cocaine
Former federal drug agent Darnell Garcia was sentenced Monday to 80 years in prison for money-laundering and drug-trafficking, by a judge who declared that "perhaps the DEA itself should have been indicted" for allowing the corruption to go on so long.

Darnell Garcia, 42 years old, John Jackson, 40, and Wayne Countryman, 46 - began to work secretly with the drug dealers they were supposed to be tracking down. All three led a frenzied life, working on D.E.A. investigations by day and flying off to New York, say, for a night of illegal drug negotiations. And in spare moments they might be off to Luxembourg or the Cayman Islands or Switzerland to hide their illegal profits. The three communicated among themselves with mobile phones and public phones, seeking to peddle their product - much of which was cocaine and heroin they or their colleagues had seized from other traffickers. In one operation alone the trio stole 450kg of cocaine from a dealer in Pasadena stash house. - and help hide the activities of those they were dealing with.


Jackson told jurors, in graphic detail, how he and two other agents went on a crime spree over several years in which they stole drugs and cash from dealers, stash houses and even from the Drug Enforcement Agency's Los Angeles headquarters.

So audacious was the scheme, which netted them millions of dollars in drug profits, that the former agent, John Anthony Jackson, testified that he cut stolen cocaine for illegal street sales at night in the DEA's offices in the World Trade Center downtown.

Jackson is a key government witness in the DEA corruption trial of former agent Darnell Garcia, 43, of Rancho Palos Verdes, who is charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and conveying intelligence information to a fugitive drug dealer.

Jackson accused his fellow agent of participating with him in a wide range of crimes between 1983 and 1988, including breaking into a Pasadena garage, where they ripped off a Colombian drug cache of 180 kilos of cocaine, worth a potential $36 million in street sales; orchestrating diversions at DEA headquarters to steal drugs from the agency's evidence vault and almost $100,000 in drug money from a nearby cashier's office; instructing Jackson and another agent how to hide their drug profits in secret Swiss bank accounts, and harbouring drug fugitives in Garcia's apartment in Bunker Hill Towers down-town.

John Anthony Jackson was one of the flashiest federal drug agents in Los Angeles, a man known for his fancy clothes and luxurious tastes.

He drove a Mercedes-Benz to work and sometimes spoke of losing thousands of dollars in all-night poker games in Gardena, saying he made his money from an Amway franchise."They called him 'Action Jackson' long before the movie," a former colleague recalled. "He was as smooth as they come."

Darnell Garcia was an international karate champion described as "a legend in his own time" in one of two karate books he wrote. He told some fellow agents that he had a jewelry business on the side and others that he ran a chain of karate studios.

"He was one of the most arrogant bastards I've ever known," one drug agent said. "A real hotshot. Just overwhelming. He was also a bad agent, in constant trouble with the brass."

Officer Daniel Redd

West Africa Drug Ring Ran By US Cop

Baltimore police officer Daniel Redd was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 20 years in federal prison for dealing drugs, Prosecutors alleged that Redd and a Ghanaian man named Tamim Mamah, also known as Abdul Zakaria, headed a drug organization that imported drugs from West Africa.

There was fallout for others as well — Maj. Nathan Warfield, who was in charge of the Police Department's internal investigations unit at the time, was moved from his post after pictures surfaced showing him at a party with Redd, displaying basketball trophies together.

The Redd case has tentacles into several others in federal court that highlighted a growing effort by authorities to cut off a supply route involving drugs to the area through Ghana from source countries such as Afghanistan.

DEA Agent Protected Coke Shipments
DEA agent Jorge Villar, who worked with Metro-Dade police before joining DEA  was arrested in for allegedly agreeing to accept $300,000 to protect a cocaine shipment from the Bahamas.
Jorge Villar, a special agent in Miami, was arrested in Miami and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and to commit bribery. Mr. Villar and a former police officer were accused of offering to protect a Government informer who said he was trying to smuggle cocaine into South Florida.

Border Agent Eric R. Macias

Border Patrol agent sentenced to six years for Cocaine Trafficking
A Border Patrol agent who helped drug traffickers smuggle cocaine and marijuana into the country for about two years was sentenced today by a federal judge in New Mexico to six years in prison.

Eric R. Macias, who was stationed in Deming, New Mexico, previously pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of attempt to aid and abet possession and intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine. Macias also accepted about $14,000 in bribe money, according to court records.

DEA Agent Arrested In Cocaine Bust
According to the report convicted DEA agent Fausto Aguero sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. In the letter Aguero said, "very low key subjects are accused of being drug lords or leaders of drug trafficking organizations. A simple messenger who is responsible for payment of telephone bills or serving coffee at a meeting, gets reported as a coordinator for all logistics in smuggling cocaine."

Aguero said agents regularly falsify reports to keep funding coming to the agency and to receive promotions. The former agent was arrested January 13 of last year and found guilty of cocaine and weapons trafficking. Aguero is currently in a Bogota prison awaiting extradition to the U.S.

ICE Agent Worked With Drug Cartels
A former special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was sentenced Friday to 30 months in federal prison following a multi-agency investigation that revealed she illegally accessed, stole and transferred sensitive U.S. government documents to unauthorized individuals and obstructed HSI investigations.

ICE Agent Jovana Deas, 33, who was indicted in September, started her government career in 2003 as a Border Patrol officer in Nogales. She became an ICE special agent for the Homeland Security Investigation unit in 2008 and apparently didn't waste any time before using her position to “illegally help family members south of the border with ties to drug-trafficking organizations,” federal officials said at the time of her arrest in June.

In March 2008, her agency's anti-corruption unit received an allegation that she "is a family member of the Samaniego drug trafficking organization,

Deas testified that her sister, Dana Samaniego, asked her to look up the visa information of a man named Pedro Chavez-Sagredo, from Ciudad Juárez. She did, and she eventually gave printouts of the information to her sister.

Dana Samaniego herself had been a Mexican federal police officer but was fired after her unit was implicated in torturing a suspect. She had married and divorced another former Mexican federal police officer, Miguel Angel Mendoza-Estrada, who had since become a drug trafficker, prosecutors say.

Later, Brazilian police found the same information that Deas printed out on the laptop of Dana’s ex-husband, Mendoza-Estrada, who was living in Brazil. Later yet, on Aug. 26, 2010, Chavez-Sagredo was killed execution style by men who burst into a restaurant in Ciudad Juárez, which is across the border from El Paso.

Deas' indictment in May 2011 sent agents scrambling to figure out what else she might have compromised, testified Homeland Security Special Agent Jesus Lozania. Deas was one just a few custodians of informant records at the Nogales office, and as such could know the identities of the informants working for the office's 30 agents, Lozania said.

He noted that in July 2011, the office received credible information from informants in Nogales, Sonora, that drug traffickers there had obtained a list of informants attached to the Nogales office and that traffickers planned to "round up" these informants.

Two DEA Agents Arrested
Drew Bunnell and Al Iglesias two veteran agents of the DEA have been arrested on charges of taking bribes from a drug suspect. The suspect told each agent he had a large sum of money given to him by drug traffickers, and that the money was to be used to buy and transport cocaine into the United States, Cash said.

''Proper procedure would require agents in possession of this information to immediately open an investigation and conduct a reverse sting operation to arrest the traffickers,'' Cash said.
that instead of opening an investigation as required by the agency, the two agents agreed to provide protection to the informer in exchange for a share of the drug money.

DEA Agent Arrested With 150kg of Cocaine
Edward K. O'Brien, A Federal drug agent was arrested in Chicago by fellow agents and charged with trafficking in cocaine. He was arrested as he stepped from the curb outside the Northwest Airlines terminal at Logan International Airport and was charged with transporting 62 pounds of cocaine.

DEA Agent Busted In West African Visa Scam
A federal judge in New York yesterday sentenced former DEA agent Eric Newton to 15 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining U.S. visas for Nigerian citizens.

He was convicted of getting four visas for Nigerian agents to train at the new U.S. DEA drug enforcement school in Quantico, Va. Newton, 41, insisted he was asked to get the visas by his counterparts in the Nigerian drug agency, who were helping U.S. undercover agents, like Newton, stem the flow of drugs from west Africa to the states.

Federal Agent Smuggled Arms Into Mexico

A former Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to 51 months in prison on Thursday for smuggling arms into Mexico. More specifically, he’s been accused of trying to smuggle the weapons to the Mexican cartel. His girlfriend, Carla Gonzales-Ortiz, has been charged in the matter as well.

Montalvo and Gonzales-Ortiz are also accused of making a number of straw purchases of weapons between November 2010 and January 2011. Included in these were five Ak-47s, two.380 pistols, and a couple of .22 rifles. In other words, Montalvo and Gonzales-Ortiz made purchases similar to those which the DOJ and ATF allowed straw purchasers to make during Fast and Furious, only not on as a grand a scale.

Agent Steven Campbell

ATF Agent Stole Drug Cash

Steven Campbell, age 32, a former special agent with the Cleveland Office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), was sentenced today to one year and a day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release as a result of his guilty plea. Agent Steven Campbell,  was accused of hiding $46,785 in cash that he was stuffing his pocket when he was confronted by other agents at the scene.

TSA Officer Sentenced For Drug Smuggling

A 31-year-old Transportation Security Administration officer who worked at Palm Beach International Airport was sentenced today to more than six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to moving illegal drugs through airport security in exchange for cash.

Jonathan Best, of Port St. Lucie, was sentenced to six years and four months in a federal prison by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven, Conn.

ATF Agent Jailed

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a former federal agent caught up in a police corruption probe in Tulsa to serve 21 months in prison.

Former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent Brandon McFadden was the last of four officers to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma. McFadden pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge, which ordinarily carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

ICE Agent Gets 10 Years For Cocaine

A former federal immigration enforcement officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for conspiring to steal a shipment of cocaine that he planned to sell. Sentencing of Valentino Johnson, 27, of Brooklyn, came two days after his co-conspirators were sentenced in a federal sting, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.

Johnson, a former agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, admitted he conspired with two other men to steal what they thought was 50 kilograms of cocaine from a Newark warehouse Sept. 11, 2009, authorities said. He also said he planned to sell the drug.

FBI Agent Gun Running

United States Attorney John E. Murphy announced that in El Paso this morning, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent John Shipley was sentenced to two years in federal prison for violating federal firearms laws.

Special Agent John Shipley

This investigation—conducted by agents from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General together with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—commenced with a firearms trace of a .50 caliber sniper rifle sold by Shipley. That rifle was recovered by Mexican authorities following a gunbattle between suspected narcotraffickers and the Mexican military near Chihuahua, Mexico, on March 8, 2008.

Federal Agent mastermind behind firearms smuggling scheme involving Mexican drug cartels

A former state narcotics agent, who pleaded guilty in federal court last year to smuggling firearms from Oklahoma to Texas, was sentenced Wednesday to 35 months in prison.

Francisco Javier Reyes, 30, of Oklahoma City, was an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control agent when he committed his crimes between March and July 2010.

Some of the weapons Reyes had a hand in smuggling ended up in Mexico.

Undercover Drug Agent Francisco Javier Reyes

Court papers said Reyes recruited at least two men to act as “straw buyers” to purchase .50-calibre guns and assault-style rifles for him in Oklahoma. One has not been charged, and the other has since died under circumstances that relatives said are suspicious, according to court records.

The documents said Reyes paid the buyers $50 to $100 for each gun they bought, which made him a target of Project Gunrunner, an ATF initiative aimed at gun traffickers.

The documents also said a tribal police officer who sold Reyes an assault rifle told agents that “Reyes is always looking for assault rifles and even .50-calibre rifles.”

In April, agents seized 28 guns headed to Laredo, and 11 of them were traced back to Oklahoma. ATF agents questioned people who recalled having sold two of the weapons, both assault rifles, to Reyes, court records said.

In May, Border Patrol agents near La Coste, in Medina County, came across a Ford pick-up that had 59 assault rifles hidden in a load of plywood. One of them was traced back to Reyes.

Fed Agent Robs Cocaine Shipment

A federal immigration agent suspected of robbing drug dealers, was arrested today during a pre-dawn sting at a Newark warehouse where he allegedly tried to steal what he believed was a 110-pound shipment of cocaine, authorities said. Valentino Johnson, a 25-year-old rookie agent, was surrounded by federal agents and a State Police SWAT team after he and two others grabbed the fake narcotics from the sleeping compartment of a truck, authorities said.

Navy SEAL Gun Running

SEALs are given access to the best weapons. While they get their pick of the newest and most exclusive arms on the planet, the temptation to profit from the access proved too great for Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle.

Nicholas Bickle was the ringleader of a conspiracy to deal unlawfully in firearms. They accused him of bringing machine guns and other weapons into the country from Iraq for his own profit. Bickle smuggled machine guns into the United States after his first deployment to Iraq in 2007 and again after his second deployment in 2009, prosecutors contend.

As prosecutors made their closing arguments they stood amid piles of night vision goggles, ammunition, sniper rifles, rifle scopes, AK47s, M92 machine guns, and a wheeled foot locker with a false bottom for hiding Ruger 9mm sidearms used by the military.

The jury found Bickle guilty of conspiracy to deal in stolen firearms; dealing in firearms without a license; possession and transfer of machine guns; possession, concealment, sale and disposition of stolen firearms; receiving, concealing and retaining property of the United States; and transportation and distribution of explosives. The former sailor faces up to 125 years in prison and a $3.25 million fine, but sentencing guidelines could offer prison time of less than 20 years.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in Guns and Drugs Ring

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer faces up to 13 years in prison after being sentenced Thursday for using his position to smuggle guns into Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Devon Samuels, 45, and his wife, Keisha Jones, 30, were among 14 people arrested last December after parallel investigations turned up $2.8 million worth of ecstasy -- about 700,000 tabs of the amphetamine-like drug -- stored at a residence in Chamblee. It was the largest ecstasy seizure in the United States in 2010, said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, and the ninth largest in U.S. history.

Devon Samuels and wifeKeisha Jones, 30,

Samuels, the "head of the snake" of this criminal enterprise, according to one federal investigator, was sentenced to eight years on charges of conspiring to launder drug money and attempting to smuggle guns onto an air plane  He received another five years in prison for conspiring to commit marriage fraud; his wife was sentenced to six months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release.

Court upholds sentence of ex-CIA station chief

An appeals court has unanimously upheld the nearly 5 1/2-year sentence of a former CIA station chief for sexually abusing an unconscious woman at the mansion the U.S. government provided for him in Algeria.

The three-judge panel ruled Friday that U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle had adequately explained why she sentenced Andrew Warren to roughly double what was called for in sentencing guidelines.

Warren argued that his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and substance abuse made it unreasonable to give him more than a brief sentence, followed by treatment at a private facility. The appeals court disagreed.

Warren raped an unconscious Algerian woman and was accused of rape by two other Algerian women, and many videos of him having sex with different women were found in his residence.  He apparently drugged the women and videotaped his attacks.  Almost none of the press coverage of Warren’s guilty plea notes that Warren is a Muslim ,he converted to the religion and tried to push on all who would listen that it’s a “moderate” religion.

Warren authored his own mystery thriller  “The People of the Veil,” which appears to be an autobiography . . . about a Muslim plot to infiltrate the U.S. Embassy in Algiers by bypassing security and using the second in command at the Embassy.

After Warren was fired, federal agents found him high on crack in a Virginia motel room with a semi-automatic pistol in his shorts. He pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact and a gun charge

FBI Special Agent Steals Drug Bust Cash

Former FBI special agent Jerry W. Nau, 44, of Peoria, Ill., was sentenced to ten months in prison, five months in the Bureau of Federal Prisons, and five months home detention on Tuesday. According to Joseph H. Hogsett, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Nau prepared a false evidence receipt form on June 30, 2010, in which it was stated that over $43,000 of money seized from a drug dealer had been recounted and placed into evidence. The next day, the form was faxed from Nau to his FBI supervisor in Springfield. The form claimed to be verified by two other law enforcement officers, however, the money was not placed into evidence on June 30, 2010, and had not been found. Nau forged the signatures of the two other law enforcement officers.

A federal judge Friday sentenced a former special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to more than three years in prison on charges related to the theft of cigarettes, firearms and money.

The former agent, Clifford Dean Posey of Chesapeake, was given a 37-month sentence by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Robert E. Payne and ordered to pay restitution.

In April, Posey pleaded guilty to five counts - wire fraud, embezzlement, possessing or receiving stolen firearms, making a false statement and money laundering - after a grand jury handed down a multi-count indictment against him.

Agent Richard Cramer

Former U.S. Anti-drug Chief Worked With Mexican Cartel

For three decades, Richard Cramer helped put criminals in jail. Now, the former high-ranking Arizona immigration agent will join them.Richard Padilla Cramer is accused of selling out to drug lords, helping them unmask informants and set up smuggling deals. Family and former colleagues say he's the last person they'd suspect.

A federal judge in Miami, Fla., has sentenced Cramer to two years in federal prison for providing drug traffickers with confidential law-enforcement background checks that helped two smugglers avoid capture.

The 57-year-old retired U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pleaded guilty in December to obstruction of justice after federal agents arrested him and charged him with multiple counts of drug smuggling.

Cramer is one of the highest-ranking immigration agents arrested on corruption charges. His arrest comes amid a rise in criminal-corruption cases involving U.S. law-enforcement officials along the border, many of them Customs and Border Protection officials who are paid by drug smugglers to look the other way.

The investigation started two years ago as an outgrowth of a DEA inquiry on a Mexican drug ring active in Florida. Traffickers boasted that a U.S. official was selling them files that they used to identify traitors. The probe expanded and has targeted other U.S. officials, although it remains to be seen whether they will be charged as accomplices or accused of lesser offences  such as leaking documents.

Informants told the DEA that a drug lord had convinced Cramer to retire and work for him full-time. A federal complaint charges that Cramer invested $40,000 in a shipment of cocaine from Panama that got busted in Spain. Cramer was so close to the gangsters that he communicated with them via a push-to-talk phone registered to his Arizona home, and even quarrelled with them, the complaint alleges.

"The leader of the [drug organization] and Cramer had a fight . . . over the 300 kilograms of cocaine and as a result of the fight, Cramer reluctantly severed ties" with the organization, the complaint says. It quotes a recorded conversation in which traffickers said that Cramer had "very powerful friends" -- including two or three DEA agents in Mexico.

Agents originally accused Cramer of investing up to $40,000 of his own money in a shipment of 300 kilograms of cocaine from Panama to Spain through the United States. But the charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.

In court documents, agents said Cramer began working for drug traffickers in 2006 while he was stationed in Mexico as an attach. They said Cramer ran the names of a Mexican money launderer and his associate through U.S. law-enforcement databases to determine whether they were being investigated. The pair was hiding in Miami and needed assurance they were not being sought by authorities before they returned to Mexico.

Over the past two years, more than 80 officials who worked along the border have been convicted on corruption-related charges, according to a 2009 investigation by the Associated Press. The spike in corruption on the U.S. side appears related to the war on drug cartels that Mexican President Felipe Caldern launched in 2006.

Darious Smith

Cop Convicted of Shaking Down Drug Dealers for Cash

In Newark, New Jersey, a former Newark police officer was convicted last Friday of shaking down drug dealers for cash, guns, and dope. Darious Smith was indicted in 2004 along with half a dozen other Neward police officers, and a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit official misconduct, official misconduct and theft. Five witnesses, including a former patrol partner, testified that he stole cash from dealers and planted guns and drugs on them. Darius Smith, 41, was  was sentenced to three years probation, ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and was barred from any future public employment in New Jersey.

Cop Charged With Dealing Heroin

In Philadelphia, a Philadelphia police officer was arrested last Tuesday on charges he sold heroin to an FBI confidential informant. Officer Jonathan Garcia, 23 faces four counts of distribution of heroin and two counts of carrying a firearm during drug trafficking. He allegedly sold the snitch a bundle of 14 heroin packets twice in April and May, but the snitch returned the dope, saying the quality was bad. Garcia then made two more sales, thus the four counts.

The three-year veteran sometimes met with a confidential FBI informant near the 17th Police District building to sell him packets of the brown powder stamped with names like "Lacoste," "D&G" and "pussy cat," the affidavit said. Garcia is at least the 43rd Philadelphia police officer to be charged criminally since 2009, including 10 for alleged drug offences.

Officer Jonathan Garcia

He was being held at the Federal Detention Centre in Centre City pending a bail hearing. Garcia has been suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss.

Cop Charged With Dealing  Opium 

In Lumberton, North Carolina, a Lumberton police office was arrested last Friday on charges he was involved in drug trafficking. Officer Jason Walters, 35, is charged with attempted trafficking in opium by possession. (North Carolina law calls any opioid "opium"). He has been suspended without pay and was jailed on $20,000 bond. No further details were available.

Deputies Plead Guilty to Drug Conspiracy

In Corpus Christi, Texas, a former Duval County sheriff's deputy was charged Tuesday in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy case. Victor Carillo, 27, had been fired last month, a week after another deputy, Ruben Silva, was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 13 pounds of cocaine, and the sheriff said the firing was related to that case. Now, he faces the same charge. He is accused of helping Silva and others smuggle cocaine past a Border Patrol checkpoint in Mission. When the charges were announced, Carillo was already being held in the Duval County Jail on suspicion of theft by a public servant charges because he had pawned his assault rifle instead of turning it in.

Ruben Silva, 35, and Victor Carrillo, 27, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Silva admitted he conspired with Carrillo and others to distribute 10 kilograms of cocaine, which they would steal from a drug supplier.

Officials said both Silva and Carrillo participated in the conspiracy by performing a pretend traffic stop, using their official Duval County Sheriff's vehicles, and while in uniform, making the owner of the narcotics believe law enforcement had seized the drugs.

Silva received $5,000 as payment for his role in the drug distribution conspiracy, and Carrillo received $1,000 from that payment. They face a minimum of 10 years up to life in prison, as well as a possible $10 million fine.

Police officers in 'Delta Blues' Case Sentenced  

In Memphis, a former Arkansas sheriff's deputy was sentenced last Thursday to nearly seven years in federal prison for his role in an eastern Arkansas corruption and drug trafficking ring. Winston Dean Jackson is the third law enforcement officer to be sentenced in an investigation the feds dubbed Operation Delta Blues. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute and possession of a controlled substance. One more officer awaits sentencing and one more officer awaits trial in the operation.

A former Marvell police officer was sentenced last Wednesday to two years in federal prison for accepting bribes to look the other way as drug traffickers transited the region. Robert Wahls was one of five law enforcement officers and 66 other people who were indicted in an investigation called Operation Delta Blues, which focused on drug trafficking and corruption in the Mississippi Delta towns of Helena and West Helena. He pleaded guilty in January to extortion and money laundering, and admitted he took money for escorting someone posing as a drug trafficker.

District Judge James Moody sentenced former Phillips County Sheriff’s Deputy Winston Dean Jackson to 80 months in prison. Jackson addressed the court before the term was handed down, his voice shaking with emotion while he apologized for his crime and twice asked Moody to "have mercy."

"I have 9 kids and I'd like to get back to them as soon as I can," he said at one point. "... I messed up and I just put it in your hands sir and hope you have mercy on me."

Jackson in March entered a guilty plea to a drug conspiracy charge, acknowledging he was aware that drug dealing was occurring in Helena-West Helena and that he accepted payment to protect the illegal operation from authorities.

Prosecutors argued at the hearing Friday for a longer sentence because Jackson took money from the leaders of the operation in exchange for alerting them when police were closing in, allowing them to avoid arrest and continue trafficking in cocaine and marijuana.

That allowed one of the leaders to arrange the purchase of a gun that was later used to shoot a federal agent during the arrest of Delta Blues indictees last year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters said.

Police Officers Rogers and Wahls

Helena-West Helena police officers Herman Eaton, Robert "Bam Bam" Rogers and Marlene Kalb are accused of taking $500 bribes from someone posing as a drug trafficker. The main indictment alleges a drug trafficking operation directed out of Helena-West Helena "was responsible for the distribution of large quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana" and other drugs in east Arkansas, Memphis, Tenn., and Clarksdale, Miss., along with other areas.

The five police officers charged were:

Robert Rogers, police officer for the Helena-West Helena Police Department

Herman Eaton, police officer for the Helena-West Helena Police Department

Marlene Kalb, police sergeant for the Helena-West Helena Police Department

Robert Wahls, police officer for the Marvell Police Department

Winston Dean Jackson, then Phillips County Deputy Sheriff.

DEA Boosts Fight Against West African Narco-Cartels

July 6, 2013, 7:25 am

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U.S. authorities are stepping up counter-narcotics operations in West Africa, a key route for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe and allegedly a major source of funds for al-Qaida groups spreading their tentacles across the continent.

Indictments unsealed in April against senior officers in the armed forces of Guinea-Bissau, the former Portuguese colony that's at the center of the narcotics route from South America to North Africa, marked a sharp escalation in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's offensive.

Among them was Rear Adm. Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, former commander of the tiny state's navy and a suspect drug-smuggling kingpin.

He was arrested April 2 by U.S. agents and local police in international waters off the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean 650 miles west of Guinea-Bissau, which Western authorities consider to be the world's only true narco-state.

Bubo Na Tchuto has been a DEA target since 2010, when he and Guinea-Bissau's air force chief of staff, Gen. Ibraima Papa Camara, were identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as narcotics kingpins in the notoriously unstable country.

They were accused of working with the Latin American cartels moving large shipments of cocaine bound for Europe through West Africa.

Bubo Na Tchuto and others await trial in New York. Trafficking prosecutions are possible in U.S. courts even if illegal narcotics never enter the United States as long as intent to import drugs is proven.

Bubo Na Tchuto was accused of leading a coup attempt in December 2011 in Guinea Bissau, a ramshackle country of 1.5 million people that's sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea on Africa's westernmost point.

The country's latest military-backed coup was staged April 12, 2012, and U.N. officials who monitor the vast narcotics trade in the region say drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau has grown under the new junta.

The drugs are mostly carried in aircraft, usually cargoes of around 1.5 tons, on 1,600-mile flights across the Atlantic to Africa's western shoulder, landing on remote airstrips dotted around Guinea-Bissau.

A senior DEA official recently commented "people at the highest levels of the military are involved. ...

"In other African countries government officials are part of the problem. In Guinea-Bissau, it's the government itself that's the problem."

The Latin American cartels opened up the transatlantic route several years ago to counter mounting DEA seizures on more direct land and air routes from Central America and Mexico.

The DEA operations have raised the stakes against the drug smugglers and the Islamist militants further north in the Sahara region who provide the routes and protection for the narcotics that eventually are shipped across the Mediterranean to France, Spain and Italy.

The DEA's push consists largely of undercover sting operations, often with agents posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- as in the capture of Bubo Na Tchuto -- or as Lebanese paramilitaries.

There have been at least six major West African sting operations since December 2009, U.S. officials said.

This is taking place as the United States and France, a former colonial power in North Africa, are intensifying special operations against jihadist groups led by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Pressure on AQIM, and its allies, such as the Those Who Sign in Blood Brigade and the increasingly bloodthirsty Boko Haram group in Nigeria, has been intensified through U.S. bounties of $3 million to $7 million on these groups' leaders.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says Nigerian crime organizations have increasingly muscled in on the cocaine trade, in some cases edging out the Latin American cartels.

The U.N. agency estimates that 10 percent of the cocaine going to Europe, around 18 tons a year, passes through West Africa, from where it's moved north to the Mediterranean for shipment.

That's up from an estimated 7 percent in 2009 but down from an estimated 27 percent in 2007. This is probably accounted for by the Nigerians taking over the smuggling routes starting in 2008.
Africa has not only become a transit point for cocaine trafficking, the continent is also said to be consuming more of the illegal substance. According to a senior UN official, the continent’s consumption of cocaine is seemingly rising. According to the 2013 World Drug Report launched last week, over 2.6 million people in Africa used cocaine in 2011 only compared to a million from 2004 to 2005. “In Africa, consumption appears to be growing,” said Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a statement June 26, 2013 to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Mr. Fedotov called for international support to monitor the situation and to prevent the continent from becoming increasingly vulnerable to the drugs trade and organized crime.

“There is also a need to help the large number of drug users who are the victims of the spill-over effect of drug trafficking through the continent,” he added.

The trade is conservatively valued at some $2 billion a year and is considered responsible in part for destabilizing much of the region, including expansion of al-Qaida's operations in North Africa and fighting in Mali where jihadists took over the entire north of the country in early 2012, triggering a French-led military intervention.

Bankers To The Cartels

July 14, 2013, 6:47 am

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Globalization hit organized crime over the last decade and now is integral to its most profitable business -- the international narcotics traffic. 

Once a regional problem involving a customer base of a few million, and barely a billion dollars in sales, the illegal drug industry is now a worldwide enterprise with tens of millions of hard core consumers spending hundreds of billions  on opiates, cocaine and amphetamines and marijuana, as well as other drugs.

The single largest marketplace for illegal drugs continues to be the United States. Although the market has decreased dramatically since its heyday in the mid-80's, close to thirteen million Americans still think nothing about occasionally buying a gram of cocaine, a few hits of ecstasy or a quarter ounce of weed to party with their friends on the weekends.

Imagine a typical weekend in New York City. Experts estimate that at least one percent of the population - 80,000 plus - spends $200 on illicit drugs. That alone would amount to $16 million dollars a week or $832 million a year. And that's just New York.

When the drug money ultimately makes its way into the foreign economy, it is used to pay the salaries of shippers and processors, as well as the bribes that supplement the incomes of government officials on both sides of the border. What keeps the drug industry going is its huge profit margins. Producing drugs is a very cheap process. Like any commodities business the closer you are to the source the cheaper the product. 

Processed cocaine is available in Colombia for $1500 dollars per kilo and sold on the streets of America for as much as $66,000 a kilo (retail). The average drug trafficking organization, meaning from Medellin to the streets of New York, could afford to lose 90% of its profit and still be profitable," says Robert Stutman, a former DEA Agent. "Now think of the analogy. GM builds a million Chevrolets a year. Doesn't sell 900,000 of them and still comes out profitable. That is a hell of a business, man. That is the dope business."

Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wachovia (acquired by Wells Fargo in 2009), HSBC Holdings, ING Bank, Standard Chartered, American Express Bank International, Barclays, RBS, Coutts, UBS and not a few others, have a common bond beyond ranking among the largest banks in the world.

All have been accused within the past five years  of failing to comply with US anti-money laundering laws — thereby enabling, collectively, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of suspicious transactions to move through the banking system absent adequate monitoring or oversight.

Imagine if you or I were pulled over by the police driving a 40ft container while transporting $800 million in used bills that traced back to drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia suspected of being involved in murder, kidnapping, extortion, prostitution and cocaine trafficking. What are the odds that we would walk away with only a slap on the wrist and a fine?

El Chapo HSBC Happy Customer

But if you’re a big bank, and you’re caught moving money for a major international cartel, you don’t have to worry. You just fork over a monetary penalty, and then raise your fees to make up for it. Yet not one these banks, nor any of their top executives, has been hit with criminal sanctions. No one from the big banks ever goes to jail – These are the proceeds of murder and misery where in Mexico alone over 60,000 people have been killed over the past 6 years in drug related violence. But no one goes to jail. 

How much money does a bank have to launder before people go to Prison?
Britain's biggest bank was forced to pay $1.9bn (£1.17bn) fine to settle allegations by US
regulators that it allowed itself to be used to launder billions of dollars for the Sinaloa drug cartel of chapo Guzman and Colombia's Norte del Valle cartel for nearly a decade until 2010.The US department of justice said HSBC had moved $881m for two drug cartels in Latin America  and accepted $15bn in unexplained "bulk cash", across the bank's counters in Mexico, Russia and other countries. In some branches the boxes of cash being deposited were so big the tellers' windows had to be enlarged.

Specifically, the government says HSBC failed to monitor over $670 billion in wire transfers from HSBC’s Mexico division between 2006 and 2009 and failed to monitor over $9.4 billion in purchases of U.S. dollars from HSBC’s Mexico unit over the same period. (The Justice Department’s said HSBC’s Mexico division became the “preferred financial institution for drug cartels and money-launderers.”). The agency also adds that HSBC failed to monitor over $200 trillion in wire transfers between 2006 and 2009 from countries that HSBC’s U.S. unit deemed to be “standard” or “medium” risk.

Lord of War Happy HSBC Client

There is a consensus among U.S. Congressional Investigators, former bankers and international banking experts that U.S. and European banks launder between $500 billion and $1 trillion of dirty money each year, half of which is laundered by U.S. banks alone.Over a decade then, between $2.5 and $5 trillion criminal proceeds have been laundered by U.S. banks and circulated in the U.S. financial circuits. Senator Levin's statement however, only covers criminal proceeds, according to U.S. laws.

Wachovia was fined $50m and made to surrender $110m in proven drug profits, but was shown to have inadequately monitored a staggering $376bn through the Casa de Cambio over four years, of which $10bn was in cash. The whistleblower in the case, an Englishman working as an anti-money laundering officer in the bank's London office, Martin Woods, was disciplined for trying to alert his superiors, and won a settlement after bringing a claim for unfair dismissal.

Wachovia was not the first, neither will HSBC be the last. Six years ago, a subsidiary of
Barclays – Barclays Private Bank – was exposed as having been used to launder drug money
from Colombia through five accounts linked to the infamous Medellín cartel. By an ironic twist, Barclays continued to entertain the funds after British police had become involved after a tip-off, from HSBC.

And the issue is wider than drug-money. It is about where banks, law enforcement officers
and the regulators – and politics and society generally – want to draw the line between
the criminal and supposed "legal" economies, if there is one.

Take the top-drawer bank to the elite and Her Majesty the Queen, Coutts, part of the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland. On 23 March, the UK Financial Services Authority issued a final notice to Coutts, fixing a penalty of £8.75m for breach of its money-laundering code.

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to insist that drug money laundered by financial giants like HSBC and Wachovia were in fact, little more than “hedges” designed to offset losses in residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS), sliced and diced into toxic collateralised debt obligations, as the 2007-2008 global economic crisis cratered the capitalist “free market.” Evidence suggests that HSBC stepped up money laundering for their drug cartel clients as the hyper inflated real estate bubble collapsed.

Norte del Valle Cartel Drug Money

Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined £5.6m by the Financial Services Authority for failing to adequately screen customers and payments to prevent its banks – RBS, NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts – from being used for money laundering.

Standard Chartered PLC agreed to pay $340 million to a New York regulator to settle allegations that the bank broke U.S. money-laundering laws. The bank, which earlier had contested much of the allegations, acknowledged the fine covers all the transactions that the New York regulator alleged were illegal. The bank will acknowledge misconduct related to the $250 billion in transactions.

Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS – have been linked to money
laundering scam over which some corrupt Nigerian politicians were indicted. Barclays, HSBC and UBS are all members of the Wolfsberg Group, an international body set up in 2000 to try to improve global anti-money laundering procedures.

The Central Bank of Ireland has reprimanded and fined the Dublin-based life assurance arm of Swiss bank UBS after it failed to comply in a timely manner with anti money-laundering legislation introduced in 2010.that allows the bank to admit to wrongdoing and pay a fine without being criminally charged.

In the 1990s, Raul Salinas de Gortari, the brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas, tapped US-based Citibank to help transfer up to $100 million out of Mexico and into Swiss bank accounts. Although US authorities investigated the suspicious money movements, ultimately no charges were brought against Raul Salinas or Citibank — a Citigroup Inc. subsidiary. Again, in January 2010, Citigroup popped up on banking regulators’ radar, this time in Mexico, when a Mexican judge accused a half dozen casa de cambios (money transmitters) of laundering drug funds through various banks, including Citigroup’s Mexican subsidiary. Citigroup again, was not accused of violating any laws.

Like any cash rich business, drug trafficking organizations invest in the legitimate economy of their own country and use investment advisers in financial instruments available in the international marketplace. Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.

They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.

The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.

This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers - including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.

The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.

Wachovia is just one of the U.S. and European banks that have been used for drug money laundering. For the past two decades, Latin American drug traffickers have gone to U.S. banks to cleanse their dirty cash, says Paul Campo, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's financial crimes unit.

Miami-based American Express Bank International paid fines in both 1994 and 2007 after admitting that it had failed to spot and report drug dealers laundering money through its accounts. Drug traffickers used accounts at Bank of America in Oklahoma City to buy three planes that carried 10 tons of cocaine, according to Mexican court filings.

If you're caught with a few grams of cocaine, the chances are good you're going to jail. 

If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life, But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate international sanctions, your company 

pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night - every single individual 

associated with this -Is there a problem with that picture?

Z-40 Zetas Capo Busted With $2 Million In Cash

July 17, 2013, 3:01 pm

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The capture of the Zetas leader Miguel Treviño, alias Z-40, may mean more violence in the near term as his minions fight for the most coveted brand name in Mexico's underworld and his rivals move into his areas of influence.

Treviño was captured at 3:45 a.m. Monday morning by Mexican Marines in the town of Anahuac, 27 kilometres south-west of Nuevo Laredo, without firing a single shot, the government said. He had $2 million in cash and eight weapons on him at the time.

Two other alleged Zetas, his bodyguard and accountant were also captured during the stealth operation that involved ground troops and a Navy helicopter.

The government showed a photo of a bruised and chafed man who it said was the Zetas 
top commander. Treviño, who took over the Zetas last October after the death of El Lazca. 
Z-40 is wanted for numerous criminal acts in Mexico and the United States, including a double homicide and money laundering in the United States, and the murder of some 265 migrants in northern Mexico during 2010 and 2011.

El Z-40 was born June 28, 1973, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, a Zeta bastion for more than 
a decade. His parents are Rodolfo Trevino, who was already 49 years old when Miguel Angel 
was born, and Maria Arcelia Morales, then 34. 

The Trevino Morales couple procreated an extensive family: Juan Francisco, aka Kiko Ozuna 
(1955), Arcelia, Chelo (1957), Irma (1959), Alicia (1961), Rodolfo (1963), Maria Guadalupe 
(1964), Jose (1966), Ana Isabel (1968), Jesus (1970), Miguel Angel (1973), Oscar Omar, 
"Alejandro" or "El 42" (1976), Cristina (1978) and Adolfo (1980).

According to information from government intelligence agencies, Mexican as well as U.S.,  
Maria Arcelia Morales was alive up to 2007; today she would be 74 years old.  She lived in 
Nuevo Laredo, had a passport to visit some of her children and grandchildren who live in 
the United States and had a Lincoln Navigator wagon registered in her name.

The Trevino criminal history began 19 years ago, with Juan Francisco, aka "Kiko Ozuna", 
the oldest son of the Trevino Morales couple.  On December 29, 1993, in a random 
inspection by the U.S. customs service, Juan Francisco's vehicle was stopped and he twice 
denied he was carrying more than $10,000 in cash. When they searched the car, they found 
$47,984.00, which was confiscated.

That year, the DEA and the Border Patrol had begun an investigation into the trafficking 
of tons of marijuana from Nuevo Laredo into Texas, but they only had a few pieces of the 
puzzle. According to criminal case file No. 3:95-CR--189-R, in the Northern District Court 
in Texas, of which there is a copy, in October 1994, the United States government charged 
Juan Francisco Trevino, another Trevino by the name of Armando, it's not known if they are 
related--, Abraham Padilla (Benny), Abel Lopez, Fernando Quiroz (Vanna), Hipolito Ortiz 
(Polo), Oscar de Leon (Pelon), and Edel Isaac with criminal enterprise for possession of 
more than 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lbs) with the intent to distribute. At that time, Miguel 
Angel Trevino Morales was only 21 years old.

On October 18, 1994, Juan Francisco Trevino, Armando Trevino and Pedro Sanchez appeared before a magistrate and, based on the law then in effect, asked for a speedy trial which should have been held within 70 days after they voluntarily appeared in court.

On May 26, 1995, Juan Francisco filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him for violating his right to a speedy trial. On June 15, 1995, a court of original jurisdiction held a hearing and dismissed the charges that had been filed in October, 1994.

Kiko Ozuna believed he would be freed from prison immediately. He didn't know that some 
days prior, on June 7, the prosecution had filed new charges against him for conspiracy to distribute more than a ton of marijuana in the United States. While he was waiting for a speedy trial, the DEA obtained sufficient evidence to convict him. As in the majority of these cases, the agency accomplished this through accomplices that went into the informants and protected witness program. 

Those statements completely sunk Juan Francisco.Everardo Ramirez, introduced as a government witness by the prosecution, testified in court that he had participated in trafficking marihuana from Nuevo Laredo to Dallas about three times a month for a year and a half. He added that the largest load he stored was 600 lbs (272 kilograms) and that on U.S. territory they transported the drug on Suburban station wagons, using private roads on a large ranch to avoid police checkpoints. Frank Staggs, owner of the ranch, testified that the ranch caretaker was Armando Trevino. 

Everardo Ramirez also testified that he would go to a hotel in Dallas to meet with Jose Trevino Morales, the brother of Juan Francisco, who was in charge of paying him for his services. It took the United States government years to detect and stop Jose's criminal activities, who, 17 years later, turned out to be the head of the Zeta money laundering network in the United States through the quarter horse racing business.

Another key prosecution witness was Joe Chavez, who worked for Kiko Ozuna. In  December of 1993, he approached DEA Special Agent Armando Ramirez and offered to become an informant. 

"He had a feeling this thing was going to collapse," the court file points out. On January 24, 1994, Joe tipped off the DEA special agent about a marijuana shipment that was going to be delivered to Dallas on January 26. Agent Ramirez, working undercover, helped Joe Chavez load more than 463 kilograms (about 1,019 lbs) of marijuana on a Suburban (parked) next to a mobile home in Laredo.When the load got to Dallas, (law enforcement) agents were waiting and they arrested Riky Trevino and Abel Lopez. "Chavez testified that the marijuana that was seized was destined for, or belonged to, Francisco Trevino Morales," states the court file. 

That was enough for the oldest of the Trevino brothers to lose all hope of getting out of prison. On December 1, 1995, Kiko Ozuna was sentenced to 22 years in prison, which will be completed in 2017, when he is 62 years old.  He was sent to a prison close to Laredo, and, according to the terms of the sentence, when he is released he will be on supervised probation for five years "with normal conditions and with four additional conditions."
Juan Francisco Trevino Morales is still in prison. His younger brother, Miguel Angel, followed in his footsteps and surpassed him, becoming the leader of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the continent, the Zetas, which last year the Barack Obama administration classified as a "global menace" comparable to the Camorra in Italy, the Yakuza in Japan and the Circle of the Brothers in Russia. 

EL Z-40
The first traces of Miguel Treviño Morales criminal career date from the year 2000. At that time he was in charge of retail drug selling at colonia Hidalgo in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, "as well as carrying out kidnappings, disappearances and executions of people who didn´t pay their rescue", noted intelligence reports.

He first worked with Arturo Sauceda Gamboa (El Karis), Omar Lorméndez Pitalúa (Commander Pita), Iván Velázquez Caballero (el Talibán) and Mateo Díaz López (Commander Mateo). Pitalúa was arrested in 2005, Diaz López in 2006 and Velázquez Caballero in September 2012, while Sauceda Gamboa is fugitive.

His rise in the criminal world was fast. According to a FBI document from 2005 under the title “Los Zetas, a new threat to the United States”, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales was already one of the "key players" of the Gulf Cartel in Nuevo Laredo at that time. The document specifies that he worked with Los Zetas, then the cartel's armed wing.

After Arturo Guzmán Decena, killed in 2002, and Heriberto Lazcano, killed by the Navy of Mexico last October, Miguel Ángel became the first capo of Los Zetas who did not come from a military background, but directly from the criminal world, which does not mean that he lacks training or ignores military tactics.

According to the study conducted by the FBI, the members of the Special Forces who left the army to join organized crime, trained the others of the criminal organization (who did not), in addition to allying with 30 former Kaibiles, the SAS/ Delta Force of Guatemala, internationally known for their bloody and inhumane practices.

According to the same document, Los Zetas established training camps in a ranch located "between Villa Hermosa and Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas", and Z 40 debuted in the criminal world in Nuevo Laredo, where the criminal group first applied surveillance system with video cameras and lookouts.

According to the aforementioned report of the FBI, at least since 2005 the U.S. Government had information about the Zetas operating in Coahuila, specifically in Piedras Negras. The report mentions that in 2005 the leader of Los Zetas in Piedras Negras was a drug trafficker called Fernando Villarreal, identified as Z-40, an alias used by Miguel Treviño Morales.

"According to the McAllen Intelligence Center, Los Zetas operate in the area with the approval of Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Attorney general of Mexico," says the document.

The first preliminary inquiry against Z-40 dates from 2001, one more in 2003, and five others were opened in 2005. In one of these,176/DGDCSPI/05, Miguel  Treviño Morales is identified by a woman as the man who forced her husband to drive a trailer loaded with cocaine.

Information provided by Mexican intelligence agencies states that on April 28 2005, during a meeting between officials from the FBI and the Mexican Government, the name of Miguel Treviño, Z-40, was revealed for the first time as an important member of Los Zetas.

The US Government currently has several criminal charges against him, one of them in the South Texas District Court, in which there are 47 charges against him that could mean more than 200 years’ incarceration. The most recent one was opened in May 2012 by the Prosecutor of the West Texas district for conspiring to launder money for Los Zetas through the purchase, training and breeding of racehorses in the United States.

José  Treviño was born on October 23, 1966, and has been living legally in the United States for years. He was a prosperous horse breeder and trainer until he was arrested with his wife Zulema on his ranch in Lexington, Oklahoma on June 12, 2012. In the criminal lawsuit 12-cr-00210, opened in the West Texas District Court, he was accused of laundering money for Los Zetas through the companies Tremor Enterprises, Tremor Enterprises LLC, Zule Farms and 66 Land LLC, all engaged in the business of horses.

This case, uncovered in June 2012, was a feast for the press, since horses acquired with money from los Zetas won important races worth millions of dollars in prize money, Z 40 was a major shareholder of the companies and co-owner of the horses.
   
José gave his horses names related to drug trafficking: Corona Cartel, Coronita Cartel, Morning Cartel, Number One Cartel, A Snowy poster and Big Daddy Cartel, the latter was the most valuable of all, according to the case records. If years of buoyant business did not catch the attention of the authorities, the names should have done it.

In the criminal case on money laundering it was established that Miguel Angel Treviño gave dirty money to his brother José and his sister-in-law Zulema so they would take care of purchasing, training and feeding the horses, as well as enrolling them in races.

Federal authorities said that José and Zulema Treviño earned less than $70,000 in 2008 and less than $60,000 in 2009.

Mr. Graham

Even so, he bought horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, according to the affidavit. On at least a couple occasions, he had other people sign for the company’s major purchases, quarter horse industry records show. One deal was signed by a teenager who looked too young to drive. The other was handled by the scion of a prominent quarter horse family, Tyler Graham, who stunned a packed auction house in Oklahoma by agreeing to pay a record $875,000 for a broodmare named Dashin Follies.

At the time of the sale, Mr. Graham said he was buying the horse on behalf of a client he would only identify as “a Mexico resident.” Shortly afterwards  records show, he turned the horse over to Tremor. Mr. Graham has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The prosecution claims that Z 40 is directly responsible for the trafficking of cocaine from South America to the United States. Back then Lazcano was still alive so Miguel Angel Treviño was considered one of the two leaders of Los Zetas.

José Oscar Omar

The name of another Member of the Treviño clan involved with drug trafficking came up in the 
same money laundering case: Oscar Omar, alias Alejandro or Z 42, who was supposedly killed by the Mexican Navy on October 23, 2012,, but the rumour was never confirmed. 

Oscar Omar Treviño was born on June 6, 1976 and, according to the criminal file in which he appears as a co-defendant, is a high rank Zeta accused of trafficking  drugs and illicit money in the United States. He is also involved in the dealings with horses and transferring funds for that business.This was not the first criminal record of Z 40´s brother in the US. In 2008, a criminal file opened against him at the South Texas District Court, 08-cr-00244, accused Omar of being part of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas at least since 2001. (Juan is incarcerated in US Federal Prison and has a release date of March 2014)  The prosecution says that Z 42 introduced marijuana and cocaine from Nuevo Laredo into United States and he has rented homes in Laredo, Texas, to be used as safe houses by hit men.

Regarding Jesús Treviño Morales, reports state that he was born on October 4, 1970, and that he used to pose as an engineer or to hide his illegal activities. In 2004 he was riddled with more than 50 shots from AK-47 in Nuevo Laredo. His body was found in a lot in Paseo Colón and Tamazunchale Street, according to reports from the local press.

Intelligence reports say that Jesús had been put in control of a cell of Los Zetas "but he didn´t follow the new rules for the cartel" so he was killed by the members of the same criminal organization.Z-40 was one of the first to join the Gulf Cartel’s security arm, the Zetas. When Zetas capo Arturo Guzman Decena was killed in 2002, he rose through the ranks. In 2006, he was stationed as the "plaza" boss in Nuevo Laredo, the Zetas’ longtime base of operations. Near 2007, he was sent to Veracruz following the death of a high-ranking member of the group. He took control of that drug trafficking corridor, while simultaneously taking over other illicit industries such as trade in pirated DVDs and CDs, and human trafficking. He’s also thought to run the Zetas' operations in Guatemala, where the group has established bases in the northern states of Peten and Alta Verapaz.

In July 2012, the Zetas reportedly split into two factions, one side headed by Z-40, the other by Heriberto Lazcano, alias "Z-3." The rival capos each accused the other of betrayal and became embroiled in a bitter and violent power struggle. In October 2012, 
Mexican security forces reported shooting and killing Z-3, leaving Treviño as the most senior Zetas commander. In October 2012, a Zetas splinter group comprised of opponents of Z-40 announced they had formed a new group, Los Legionarios (the Legionaries), with the express purpose of waging war against Z-40 and his organization.

The youngest of the Treviño Morales brothers, Adolfo, was killed on January 18, 2006, when he was 26 years old. His body was abandoned next to a swing in a park in Nuevo Laredo.

Z 40 has a brother named Rodolfo, 10 years older than him, who works in cargo transports. He has no criminal records. In family photographs he appears next to Miguel Ángel and José.

Shabu Drug of The Future In Africa

April 3, 2013, 11:53 am

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A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) warns that the production of methamphetamine is a "growing concern" for West Africa.  The report, which addresses many forms of transnational crime in the region, also suggests that recent gains in the fight against cocaine trafficking may have been overstated.  

Much of the methamphetamine produced in West Africa is headed for East Asia, though South Africa is a major secondary market.  Two methamphetamine laboratories were detected in Nigeria in 2011 and 2012.

The report says that while the flow of methamphetamine out of West Africa is relatively new, the income it generates is “remarkably high.”

Pierre Lapaque, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime representative for West and Central Africa, says methamphetamine is attractive to West African drug producers because it is so easy to make.  

“It’s easy to prepare," he said. "You can do that in your kitchen, if you wish.  You go on the Internet, you get the recipe and you cook.  As long as you have the good ingredients you can cook it easily.”

West Africa has long been a notorious hub for cocaine trafficking. Because of its location and weak law enforcement institutions, the region is a convenient stopping point for cocaine produced in South America and intended for sale in Europe.

The trafficking has further weakened state institutions in some countries, and the U.N. report says "cocaine-related corruption has clearly undermined governance in places like Guinea Bissau."

The new report notes that the flow of cocaine in West Africa peaked in 2007 at 47 tons, but decreased to 18 tons by 2010 in response to efforts to combat maritime and air shipments.  However, the report also says that there is debate about whether the flow of cocaine has actually decreased, or whether “traffickers have simply found less detectable ways of moving the drug.”

Lapaque said that data has been limited since 2010, but that officials believe the trafficking of cocaine is now back up to between 30 and 35 tons.

“The problem is that the region is still facing the same problems - the problem of governance, the problem of rule of law, the problem of corruption," Lapaque said. "Things have improved, but they haven’t dramatically improved, so there is room for improvement.”  

He said it was important to target the traffickers rather than particular types of shipments.  He said this was because criminal networks are often involved in many different forms of illegal shipments - from drugs to arms to illegal migrants.  

"If for example you open a container here, you open one ton of cocaine," Lapaque said. "That’s brilliant - you have stopped one ton of cocaine. But if 20 tons are going through another channel and you haven’t dismantled the criminal network that was actually sending this one ton of cocaine, you are just digging in the sea. You finish the day exhausted, and at the end of the day you haven’t achieved anything."

Intermediaries along West African smuggling routesare often paid in product. To turn expensive high-grade cocaine into a profit-making drug in one of the world's poorest regions, traffickers are transforming the white powder into crack cocaine, Lapaque said.

In some cities, a dose of the highly addictive drug - commonly produced by mixing cocaine with readily available baking soda - sells for as little as 200 CFA francs (26 pence).

Drug of the future
While cocaine smuggling through the region has existed for a decade, destabilising weak governments and their faction-rife militaries from Guinea-Bissau to Democratic Republic of Congo, a new drug is on the rise.

Cheap and easy to produce using widely available chemicals, methamphetamine - or meth - is emerging as a preferred narcotic for West Africa-based international traffickers and local distributors.

"This is unfortunately the future of organised crime in the region because it's so easy to produce your own cooked methamphetamine at home," Lapaque said.

"There is poor control of precursor chemicals coming into the region ... When you have the recipe, you can pretty much prepare any kind of synthetic drug."

An estimated 3,000 methamphetamine couriers travelled from West Africa to Asia in 2010, carrying with them drugs parcels worth about $360 million (237 million pounds), he said.

In the two years that followed, two meth labs were discovered in Nigeria. The region is also a supplier of methamphetamine to South Africa.

"There's such a big market in East Asia - Japan, Malaysia, Thailand - that when you see that the profit (increases) 10 times when it's exported from here and lands on the streets of Tokyo, the criminal networks quickly identify that as a good criminal niche."

Cocaine Cartels Target Japan's Vast Wealth
What you do see in the newspapers is that the movement of cocaine from Latin America into Japan - some of it by way of Hawaii, some directly from Colombia and Bolivia - is growing from a trickle to a steady flow. Last year, police seized 68 kilograms, or 150 pounds, of cocaine. While that's hardly enough to raise eyebrows in the United States - a single bust in Los Angeles two years ago netted 20 tons - it was five times more than the 30 pounds captured in 1989.

But that increase doesn't begin to describe the worsening situation. A senior police official acknowledged that authorities miss far more cocaine than they find and many more users and traffickers are at large than the 93 arrested last year.

``I estimate that last year at least 100 times more cocaine came into Japan than we seized,'' said Toshihiro Shibasaki, superintendent of the Drug Enforcement Division. ``That means there was at least 6,800 kilos (15,000 pounds, or 7.5 tons). And there are at least 10,000 users and dealers.''

As recently as two years ago, only a handful of Japanese, mainly actors and musicians, were thought to use cocaine. Today, it's apt to be college students and young executives.

``Since we've achieved all the material wealth we've ever dreamed of, we're now looking for other pleasures,'' said Konuma.

``Drugs help fill that need - and cocaine, in particular, is seen by young Japanese as the height of fashion.''

Others say deterioration of traditional family life, with its rigid controls, is contributing to the rising popularity of cocaine and other illicit drugs.

``In a Japanese family, it's too difficult for a parent to admit that his or her beloved child is on drugs,'' said Osamu Isohata, a newly cured speed, or amphetamine, addict. ``So they close their eyes and keep it quiet.''

Some experts say that the likelihood of a drug epidemic is enhanced by the Japanese propensities for tobacco, alcohol and prescription medicines, which are consumed at rates higher than in nearly any other country.

Police also attribute the rising tide of coke in part to tighter enforcement measures in the United States, the world's largest cocaine consumer.

``Japan seems to be a new target of foreign drug smugglers in countries such as Colombia,'' said the nation's top law-enforcement officer, National Police Agency Superintendent Ryoichi Suzuki.

In a recent report, the Justice Ministry said that ``it cannot but be admitted that an omen is emerging that cocaine will spread in Japan.'' A Western drug-enforcement agent noted that Japan, as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, has become as irresistible to international drug traffickers ``as a light bulb is to moths.''

Young Japanese, in particular, with money burning holes in their pockets and purses, are prepared to pay more for cocaine than users in other countries. A single gram of coke brings about $540 in Tokyo, as much as six times its street worth in New York, according to the Drug Enforcement Division's Shibasaki. At that rate, the current cocaine traffic in Japan is worth in excess of $367 million, he estimated.

``Young Japanese travel abroad more than anyone else,'' said Kondo who, since recovering from his own addiction to speed, has been running the Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center, the only privately funded facility of its kind in Japan. ``While they're in Honolulu, or L.A., Katmandu or Sydney, they enjoy coke and other drugs at what they consider cheap prices. They come home with a taste for these things.''

During a recent trip of his own to Honolulu, he was arrested on an immigration charge, Kondo said. While in jail, he said, ``I met these Japanese guys who told me they'd been running coke into Japan for the Mafia. They said they had been doing it for 10 years, but traffic was really picking up lately, because the kids want it.''

At the moment, said Kondo, most young Japanese use various forms of speed, because it's more readily available, occasionally augmenting it with cocaine. The so-called ``awakening'' property of speed appeals to workaholic Japanese, who consume legal, stimulant-laced ``health drinks'' from vending machines at a mind-boggling rate and then wind down each night with prodigious quantities of alcohol.

For years, particularly since the end of World War II, most illicit drug abuse in Japan has concentrated on speed. Widespread use of stimulants began during the war, when the government passed the drug out to munitions factory workers to boost productivity.

Later, yakuza gang members used stimulants to stay awake for marathon gambling sessions. The yakuza passed the drugs on to prostitutes in brothels they operated. Eventually, the drugs made their way to students, who needed to stay awake for days and nights of intensive studying. Now these young people are entering the job market and carrying their habits with them.

Police say there are 200,000 to 600,000 speed addicts and 2 million more casual users in Japan, which has a population of 120 million.

West Africans Dominate Swiss Cocaine Trade

April 6, 2013, 2:54 pm

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A number of major drug busts in Switzerland have underlined the growing influence of West Africans in the cocaine trafficking trade and the methods used. In February, a Lausanne court jailed two Nigerian asylum seekers working for a Togolese criminal group for smuggling cocaine into Switzerland and money laundering following a Europe-wide investigation known as "Inox".

Some 35 people have been arrested as part of the investigation, accused of smuggling 15 kilograms of cocaine from West Africa.

The Inox case is just one of a handful of major cocaine busts announced by Swiss police in recent months. On Wednesday, Neuchâtel cantonal police reported it had broken up a West African cocaine ring following the arrests of 30 people across Europe.

A day earlier, Lucerne police said it had dismantled a Nigerian cocaine network, involving 30 people, which smuggled the drug into Switzerland from France and the Netherlands by train using female drug mules. Other cases involving Nigerians were reported in the city of Biel in February and in canton Vaud in January.

"The numerous recent cases are the result of a determined campaign by the cantons to break down open street-level cocaine trafficking," Roger Flury, an illegal drugs expert at the Federal Police Office.

"West Africans are clearly the most dominant group, followed by people from the Dominican Republic. They were very visible and active; it was only a question of time."

Massive Increases
Recent years have seen massive increases of cocaine smuggling from South America into Europe via West Africa. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that 27 per cent, or 40 tons of cocaine consumed annually in Europe, worth $1.8 billion (SFr2 billion), pass through West Africa.

Cocaine is mostly transported to West Africa in large quantities on sea vessels, often concealed in containers. In West Africa the cocaine is stockpiled, repackaged and much of it shipped to Europe on commercial flights in the luggage, clothing or intestines of drug mules. According to the UNODC, criminal groups have started using a "shotgun approach", whereby a large number of couriers are dispatched on the same flight.

Upon arrival the cocaine is distributed via West African criminal groups throughout Europe.

"Before, most cocaine entered Europe via Spain and the Netherlands, but Portugal has grown in importance alongside Spain as an entry point linked to the Portuguese colonies in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde," said Thomas Pietchmann, a UNODC researcher.

As soon as one network is dismantled another is in place very quickly. They are very mobile and flexible and organised.  There is no permanent hierarchy so a seller can arrive and quickly become responsible for a network," he explained. sayes Jean-Christophe Sauterel 

Togo-Based Group
In the recent Inox case, a Togo-based criminal group smuggled cocaine to Europe via Brussels airport using drugs mules. The mules were met by Nigerian gang members who distributed the drugs on their behalf throughout Europe, including Switzerland, collected the profits and redistributed them back to Togo.

To obtain visas to enter Switzerland, dealers placed orders with Swiss companies at trade fairs in Germany and then requested commercial invitations to travel to Switzerland.

Instead of transferring money back to Africa via Western Union, a money transfer service, or using other traditional transfer routes, drug funds were converted into hundreds of second-hand cars, which were bought from a Lebanese garage owner in canton Bern and shipped to Togo.

According to Jean-Christophe Sauterel, spokesman for the Vaud cantonal police, although the Inox case is "not that exceptional", it illustrates well the situation in Switzerland.

Endless battle
"The networks are organised, with sellers coming here from the various countries in West Africa to deal cocaine. Once in Switzerland they are looked after by a network that can even organise asylum requests," he said.

"The Nigerians are very active and often at the head of the network. If not, people from Togo, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Sometimes they are organised by clan or country of origin, but other times it's mixed."

"The police can't eradicate drug smuggling. We don't have the means and we can never do so. In canton Vaud we have taken precautions to limit the visibility of drug dealing but with the constant pressure on street dealing the problem has been diluted. Dealing is no longer open in the streets but in public transport or in apartments. It's not just in Lausanne but all towns in the canton are affected," said Sauterel. "We don't pretend to be able to resolve the problem, which is much wider than the competence of the police alone."


In March, the Lucerne police dismantled a Nigerian cocaine ring operating from Holland and France. Several drug smugglers, mostly African women, smuggled a total of 5 kilograms of cocaine, worth half a million francs.

On August 18, the Neuchatel police reported the arrest of six asylum seekers originating from West Africa, who smuggled more than 2.5 kilograms of cocaine mainly in the northern Val-de-Travers region. A seventh, convict, principally active in the city of Neuchatel, is accused of having sold at least 1.25 kilograms.

Seventeen members of a Nigerian drug trafficking group have now been arrested, say canton Vaud police, who have been working with Lausanne-based border guards, and Dutch and French police. The leader of the group has been arrested at his base in The Netherlands and CHF80,000 in cash was seized, as was 15kg of cocaine. The trafficking ring had already used mules to carry at least 50 kg of cocaine into Switzerland, with a street value of CHF50.5 million, say Vaud police.

The trafficking ring was discovered when border guards checking people on a TGV train from Paris to Lausanne, they were suspicious of water cartons, which turned out to contain 3.5 kg of cocaine. The woman from Cameroon who was carrying them was arrested on the train and has been held in Paris. Her sister, who is Swiss, was found to have similar cartons when she stepped off the train in Lausanne. 

Police established that 15 drug runs had been made into Switzerland, and in August they arrested two Polish women at a hotel in Lausanne. The drug ring  had changed its tactics and the two had swallowed 2.5 kg of the drug, then used a car to drive the cocaine into the country. The two Polish mules were hired in Rotterdam and paid €1,500 to deliver the goods. The two told police they had delivered 60kg throughout Europe, of which half was to Switzerland.

In August, Swiss customs stationed in Geneva arrested four African drug smugglers aged 29-46 in a Portuguese car. They had swallowed a total of 280 cocaine packets, totalling 5.4 kilograms of cocaine. Police believes these mules mainly come from Africa. They are paid between 500-1000 Euros to swallow the drug.

 In May, the Bern city police seized 1.5 kilograms of cocaine in a down town shop, including a significant amount of cash, forty cell phones and eleven digital cameras. The police arrested thirteen persons of African origin. One person is still detained in pre-trial detention. 

On July 13, a Zurich district court handed severe sentences against seven Dominican drug smugglers. The 40-year old mastermind of the ring received the highest sentence, with 14 years in jail. He organized the import of 186 kilograms of cocaine from the Dominican Republic into the Zurich area since early 2007 by means of his own import company named Caribbean Import GmbH. His 36-year old deputy was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence. Both will have to pay a fine of 50,000 francs. A 30-year old Dominican woman was sentenced to seven years in prison, while a 38-year old Zurich taxi driver and a 22-year old Turkish woman were sentenced to serve 3.5 years in prison. A 42-year old Greek was also sentenced to one year in prison for documentary fraud and money laundering.

On July 20, Swiss customs in Basel reported the arrest of a 38-year old woman from Bern attempting to smuggle 1.9 kilograms of cocaine. She was using a belt around her waist. The man controlling her, a Nigerian citizen, was later arrested in Zurich. 

Geneva police authorities complain that the city's number one problem is drug trafficking. The Geneva drug scene is controlled by many nationalities depending on the type of drug. Large numbers of drug dealers or traffickers destroy their identity papers and apply for asylum to avoid repatriation to their home country.

The average monthly earnings of a drug dealer in Geneva are about SFr. 4,000. Geneva police statistics on drug-related arrests show that 98.5 percent of drug dealers were foreigners. Geneva police statistics on drug-related arrests show that 98.5 percent of drug dealers were foreigners. 

Between 4 to 5 tones of cocaine is trafficked into Switzerland every year. The black market value of the cocaine is estimated to be worth $535 Million (520 Million Swiss Francs).

Out of a population of 8 million people, Federal Police in Switzerland estimate that between 25,00 to 32,000 people are regular users of cocaine. An additional 36,000 to 44,000 occasionally use cocaine in the country. In 2011, law enforcement seized 401 kilograms of cocaine.

Swiss Medical Heroin Programme
Switzerland focuses heavily on prevention and early intervention to prevent casual users from developing a drug addiction. Youth programs to discourage drug use cost $6 million annually according to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. Swiss authorities purchase on an annual basis 250 kilograms of heroin for use in maintenance of the 130,000 registered addicts through the Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) program at the 23 heroin distribution centres  

The heroin imported by the Swiss government costs SFr. 100-130 million each year, and originates from Tasmania, Turkey or France-all licit producers of opium products. The Swiss government is also treating 20,000 people with methadone replacement therapy. Three-quarters of those enrolled in the HAT program were male.

Swiss authorities report that in many cases, patients' physical and mental health has improved, their housing situation has become considerably more stable, and they have gradually managed to find employment. Numerous participants have managed to reduce their debts. In most cases, contacts with addicts and the drug scene have decreased, according to the managers of these programs. Consumption of non-prescribed substances declined significantly in the course of treatment, Swiss authorities report.

The current average cost per patient-day at outpatient treatment centres came to 57 Swiss francs. The overall economic benefit-based on savings in criminal investigations and prison terms and on improvements in health-was calculated by Swiss authorities to be 104 Swiss francs. After deduction of costs, the net benefit is 47 Swiss francs per patient-day. Twenty percent of the costs were paid for by the cantons, while 80 percent was paid by the public health insurance. 

Alternative Policy
Cannabis smokers in Switzerland are allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants each at home to stop them buying drugs on the black market.The law allows four people sharing a house to grow up to 16 plants - but only if each person tends to their own crop. The deregulation of Switzerland's cannabis laws was agreed by four neighbouring regions in the French-speaking part of the Alpine country.

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Guinea-Bissau Bubo Na Tchuto Arrested in DEA Sting

April 6, 2013, 2:54 pm

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Public television in theCape Verde Islands says U.S. authorities operating at sea have arrested a former navy chief of the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau who is suspected of being a kingpin in the international drug trade.

Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana reported late Thursday that Rear Adm. Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto and two other Guinea-Bissau nationals were apprehended aboard a yacht in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The operation code named Lightening was carried out by a unit of the DEA fast, which is part of DEA  Drug Flow Attack Strategy. Bubo Na Tchuto was lured to the yacht by a fake drug deal set up by DEA informants, after his arrest he was taken to the port of Palmeira, on Sal Island where a DEA jet was waiting, he was immediately flown to to New York to face multiple charges. US DEA undercover agents had been present in Guinea-Bissau for two weeks and it was probably these agents who had been involved in the capture. Bubo Na Tchuto’s wife said she had not seen her husband since Wednesday and that her requests to military high command for information on his whereabouts had drawn a blank. “He left the house (on Wednesday) as usual in his car to do some shopping in town and he hasn't been back since. 

Rear Adm. Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto and  two other Guinea-Bissau citizens  Papis Djeme and Tchamy Yala (nephew of Ex President Kumba Yala)  were taken into custody Tuesday aboard a vessel in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean while two others, Manuel Mamadi and Mane, Saliu Sisse, were arrested Thursday in Guinea-Conakry and later transferred to U.S. custody. Na Tchuto was charged with conspiring to import narcotics into the United States. Mane and Sisse both come from military backgrounds and had recently travelled to Dakar with high ranking military officials to open a special bank account to facilitate future shipments, the first payment expected was $5 million. Bubo was also in Dakar around the same time,  supposedly to visit a private clinic for an unrelated health issue. 

Chilling in Dakar

Two more men, Rafael Antonio Garavito-Garcia and Gustavo Perez-Garcia, both Colombian, were arrested in a related operation Friday in Colombia. They remain there pending extradition to the United States. Both Colombians were established in Bissau, living in the home of a prominent member of the transitional government.

During tape recorded meetings, Mane, Sisse and Garavito-Garcia agreed to arrange the purchase of weapons for FARC, including surface to air missiles, importing them to Guinea-Bissau as if they were to be used by the  Guinea-Bissau army . 

Mane, Sisse and Garavito-Garcia were also charged with conspiring to sell weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to be used to protect FARC cocaine processing operations in Colombia against U.S. military forces. The arrests were the culmination of a long-standing undercover operation in Guinea-Bissau and elsewhere, the DEA said.

Na Tchuto, Djeme and Yala were detained Tuesday in international waters near Cape Verde, off the West African coast, the DEA said, while Mane and Sisse were arrested in a Guinea-Conakry two days later and handed over to U.S. authorities. They were both flown directly to the United States.

The arrests were made based on evidence gathered by confidential sources who posed as representatives or associates of the FARC as they communicated with the defendants beginning last summer, authorities said. Prosecutors said the evidence includes a series of audio recordings and videotaped meetings between June 2012 and November of last year in Guinea-Bissau. These recordings may also implicate high ranking military officers in the current junta in Bissau.

According to court papers, the defendants agreed to receive multiple ton shipments of cocaine off the coast of Guinea-Bissau and to store the cocaine in storage houses there prior to their shipment to the United States. The U.S. government alleged that the defendants also agreed that a portion of the cocaine would be used to pay Guinea-Bissau government officials to provide safe passage for the cocaine through Guinea-Bissau.

Prosecutors said Na Tchuto discussed shipping ton-quantities of cocaine from South America to Guinea Bissau by sea, saying it was a good time to transport drugs because Guinea Bissau government was weak because of a recent coup d'etat. They said he also said his fee would be $1 million per 1,000 kilograms of cocaine received in Guinea Bissau for the use of a company he owned to hide the shipments before they were moved to the United States. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

All five defendants were ordered held without bail after brief appearances in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where they seemed to struggle to understand Portuguese and creole translators.

According to a confidential source, the U.S. believes Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchutohas strong links to AQIM cells in Mauritania, Guinea Conakry, Mali and Gambia, where, it is recalled, Bubo retreated almost a year before returning clandestinely to prepare the failed  April 1st coup.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated Na Tchuto as a drug kingpin in 2010 for his alleged role in the cocaine trade in Guinea-Bissau, freezing any assets he might have had in the United States. For at least a decade, Guinea-Bissau has played a key role in the drug trade. The country’s archipelago of virgin islands has been used by Latin American cartels as a stopover point for ferrying cocaine to Europe, where prices have sky-rocketed at the same time that demand for cocaine levered off in North America.

Fernando Vaz, a spokesman for Guinea-Bissau's government, confirmed the arrests to the Reuters news agency, saying the rear admiral had been arrested off the coast of Cape Verde in a boat flying the Panama flag. Na Tchuto was one of two Bissau Guineans designated as drug kingpins, or "significant foreign narcotics traffickers" by the U.S. government in 2010, and hit with a U.S. travel ban and asset freeze.

Extract
Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, Guinea-Bissau's former Navy Chief of Staff, and Ibraima Papa Camara, current Air Force Chief of Staff, are both involved in narcotics trafficking in Guinea-Bissau, including being linked to an aircraft suspected of flying a multi-hundred kilogram shipment of cocaine from Venezuela to Guinea-Bissau on July 12, 2008.  Na Tchuto has long been suspected of being a major facilitator of narcotics trafficking in Guinea-Bissau.  In August 2008, Na Tchuto fled into exile to The Gambia, but returned to Guinea-Bissau in late December 2009 to seek refuge at the United Nations Peace-Building Support Office. In addition to his narcotics trafficking activities that form the basis for his designation, most recently, Na Tchuto was complicit in the activities surrounding the illegal detention of Guinea-Bissau's Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, and others on April 1, 2010.


Bubo Na Tchuto was a major player in the West African cocaine trade and will be an invaluable source of high value intel for the DEA. His extensive network of government officials, army officers and cartel contacts together with his 10-15 track record in the international cocaine trade could potentially enable him tobroker a deal with the DEA for a lighter sentence or disappear completely into the witness protection program. Officially called the Witness Security Program, it provides protection for government witnesses who are at risk due to testimony they've given about terrorists or criminals.

More than 18,400 men, women and children have participated in it, and not one of the 8,500 witnesses or the 9,900 family members has been harmed, according to the U.S Marshals Service. It provides 24-hour protection to all witnesses while they are in a high-threat environment; witnesses receive financial assistance for housing and subsistence for basic living expenses and medical care; the program also provides for job training and employment assistance. Most witnesses who enter the program are not law-abiding citizens, Ninety-five percent of them are hard core criminals with blood on their hands. However today's witness protection program faces the added burdens of the digital age. Facebook, Google, texting and the instant access to information via the Internet and smartphones provide new challenges to keep the identities of witnesses a secret.

Bubo Na Tchuto's personal fortune is estimated to be between 200-250 million dollars. The Confidential Source program is an important tool used by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Confidential sources come from all walks of life and are significant to initiating investigations and providing information or services to facilitate arrests and seizures of drugs and cash. According to the DEA, it has approximately 4,000 active confidential sources at any one time. 

The recent case of the Flores brothers highlights how organised crime figures can work with the Drug Enforcement Administration,  in exchange for intel on rival cartels. A key Sinaloa lieutenant Zambada-Niebla’s lawyers claim  the U.S. government turned a blind eye as 2 tons of cocaine a week was smuggled into Chicago and other parts of the United States. By 2001, the Flores brothers had become the main connection to Chicago for several of the leading Mexican drug cartels. They were the principal link in a drug-supply chain that connected Colombian producers with Mexican smugglers and on to North American consumers. According to court documents, the drugs were delivered to the U.S. by a variety of means—on speedboats, fishing vessels, Boeing 747 cargo planes, container ships and tractor trailers, and even by submarine.

Special Relationship with DEA

Court filings estimate theirannual income at $700 millions according to a Washington
Post article, the Flores reportedly shrink-wrapped the cash proceeds and hid it  inside condos and brick split-levels in Chicago registered to relatives and girlfriends with no criminal records.

The breaks the Flores twins have received for cooperating with the government have made for contentious courtroom exchanges between the government prosecutors and the defence team of Zambada-Niebla, who have been filing competing motions dating back to July 2011. They claim that one trusts the Flores brothers, no one, and…those are the two key witnesses in this case. We believe, we know, we've heard that the government gave enormous benefits to the Flores brothers’ families, friends, including the ability to keep their ill-gotten gains while they were working with the government; that agents here in Chicago perhaps…knew about the situation.

No one in the Flores family, there were many of them involved in the organization, they have not been charged with any crimes. We want to know the evidence as to why they were not charged with these crimes. The  Flores Twins remain in U.S. custody, though their exact location is a secret. Sources close to the case say they are being held in a Wisconsin prison, a state in which they own property and were previously indicted. The Flores twins may be important enough to the government’s case against Zambada-Niebla for the record of their once-vast criminal empire to be expunged. 

However for the time being In the eyes of the American government, Mr. Na Tchuto is a trafficking mastermind in a country that has become a global narcotics hub: the point man, for instance, when hundreds of pounds of cocaine were unloaded from a plane at the minuscule local airport two years ago. 

"He was an intermediary and he was paid for his services… he was obviously in a position to look the other way and even to provide protection for these shipments as they were offloaded," Mr Bagley said.

As navy chief he would have also been able to provide protection as the drugs were directed to "European markets through a variety of different routes including private aeroplanes up to and including camel trains across the Sahel and into areas where they could cross the Mediterranean", he added.

Bubo Na Tchuto was actually the force behind the forces,” said Dr. Abdel Fatau Musah, the political director for the Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc of nations. “The fact that he is controlling things is very unpleasant for the region.”

As Mr. Na Tchuto rides around this crumbling West African capital in an outsize pick-up truck flanked by a personal guard of soldiers, offering his booming greeting to well-wishers. The president is still nominally in charge, but officials in the region worry that the nation has effectively fallen into the hands of Mr. Na Tchuto.

In December 2011 he was arrested after an attempted coup, there was speculation that it was in fact two factions of the armed forces fighting for control of the drug-smuggling trade. But at joint press conference army chief of staff Gen Antonio Injai and Defence Minister Bacrio Dja said it was an attempt by a group of soldiers to overthrow the government. 

Afterwards he managed to escape and was found hiding out in the unlikeliest of places — living in the United Nations building here, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a United Nations office and sometimes eating in the canteen.

As Mr. Na Tchuto took refuge at the United Nations building, the secretary general’s representative in Bissau, Joseph Mutaboba, was reassuring the Security Council in New York that “conditions were now in place for political stability” in the country and that Guinea-Bissau was on a “journey towards peace, democracy and prosperity,” according to a Security Council announcement from March 5.

In an interview, Mr. Mutaboba said his fugitive guest, who was wanted by the government for treason, had been given sanctuary only reluctantly. The United Nations said at the time that Mr. Na Tchuto stepped onto the compound uninvited and declared that his life was in danger, making it “mindful of international human rights obligations governing such situations.”

Mr. Mutaboba said there was “no sign” that Mr. Na Tchuto was plotting a coup inside the building and that his cellphones had been confiscated to prevent trouble. Still, he acknowledged that it was possible that Mr. Na Tchuto had made contact with the outside.

“You cannot read deeply into what the military are up to, especially when you have shifting, opportunistic alliances,” Mr. Mutaboba said.

Now a free man, Mr. Na Tchuto also denied spending his time under the auspices of the United Nations plotting the April 1 coup. But in an interview at his lawyer’s office here, he noted: “I am a former guerrilheiro. I have the strength to transform difficult situations into something favourable.”

Still, the sudden onslaught of soldiers had taken him by surprise, he said, as have the American government’s allegations of drug trafficking.

“There’s no material proof that I was involved in drugs,” he said angrily. “Proof, proof, proof, proof. People say I am a criminal! I am a patriot!” he said, boasting about his service during the country’s war of liberation against the Portuguese in the 1960s and 1970s, which he said he joined at the age of 14.

For the United Nations, his presence in the multi story headquarters on a rutted road here has been a source of discomfort, both before and after the coup.

“The whole international community here was astonished at the U.N. behaviour ” a Western diplomat in Bissau said. “They didn't understand why they were harbouring such a character. He was not just sitting there watching television.”

Paulo Gorjão, director of the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security in Lisbon, goes even further: “He was under the protection of the U.N., planning a coup against the government. It was perfect.”

Hours after the coup, Mr. Na Tchuto appeared with his ally, Gen. Antonio Indjai, the new army chief, at a news conference introducing the country’s new bosses. Mr. Na Tchuto, who had been navy chief of staff under a previous government, did not get his old job back, but he still plays a very influential, if officially somewhat nebulous, role.

It was a stunning reversal for a man who had spent over a year in exile in Gambia, accused by those then leading Guinea-Bissau of plotting a coup against them. Mr. Na Tchuto sneaked back into the country on a fishing boat shortly after Christmas last year. It appears that he may of been helped to escape from detention in The Gambia by members of a South American Drug Cartel. Members of that cartel were recently sentenced to fifty years hard labour for drug trafficking over $1 billion worth of cocaine.

By turns genial and explosive, Mr. Na Tchuto appeared hurt by the American accusations, insisting that he admired America deeply, had dreamed about President Obama and had a large American flag in his living room.

“I ask the Americans to help establish justice and peace in this country,” he said, noting the history of instability here. There have been at least seven successful or attempted coups since independence in 1974, and in the last 12 years 4 presidents, 4 acting presidents and 11 prime ministers.

Mr. Na Tchuto deflected a question about whether he was now the real boss in Guinea-Bissau, saying through his lawyer that he “ didn't want to offend” the current president and army chief of staff by responding.

Others here are more blunt. “Bubo Na Tchuto has power, and he has money — and we know he has money from drugs — and he has a lot of people behind him,” said Idrissa Djaló, a leading businessman and former presidential candidate. “And so the situation is uncontrollable.”

At his hearing on the lingering treason charges Mr. Na Tchuto looked relaxed, showing up with his military guard and joking on the front porch of the military tribunal building with the officers who were going to judge him. It was all a mere “formality,” he said later.

A small crowd gathered across the street to stare at Mr. Na Tchuto in his navy blue admiral’s uniform. Everybody knew who he was. “He is a great chief,” murmured a man looking on, Do Geloso, a tailor. “He’s got the power.”

Is The U.S. Working With The Sinaloa Cartel?

April 10, 2013, 2:38 pm

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According to an article by the US publication Business Insider a senior  Mexican diplomat says America pretty much invited the Sinaloa Drug Cartel across the border.

Leaked emails from the private U.S. security firm Stratfor cite a Mexican diplomat who says the U.S. government works with Mexican cartels to traffic drugs into the United States and has sided with the Sinaloa cartel in an attempt to limit the violence in Mexico.

Many people have doubted the quality of Stratfor's intelligence, but the information from MX1—a Mexican foreign service officer who doubled as a confidential source for Stratfor—seems to corroborate recent claims about U.S. involvement in the drug war in Mexico. Most notably, the reports from MX1 line up with assertions by a Sinaloa cartel insider that cartel boss Joaquin Guzman is a U.S. informant, the Sinaloa cartel was "given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago," and Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for information used to take down rival cartels.

An email with the subject "Re: From MX1 -- 2" sent Monday, April 19, 2010, to Stratfor vice president of intelligence Fred Burton says: I think the US sent a signal that could be construed as follows:

"To the [Juárez] and Sinaloa cartels: Thank you for providing our market with drugs over the years. We are now concerned about your perpetration of violence, and would like to see you stop that. In this regard, please know that Sinaloa is bigger and better than [the Juárez cartel]. Also note that [Ciudad Juárez] is very important to us, as is the whole border. In this light, please talk amongst yourselves and lets all get back to business. Again, we recognize that Sinaloa is bigger and better, so either [the Juárez cartel] gets in line or we will mess you up." In sum, I have a gut feeling that the US agencies tried to send a signal telling the cartels to negotiate themselves. They unilaterally declared a winner, and this is unprecedented, and deserves analysis.

Bill Conroy of Narco News reports that MX1's description matches the publicly available information on Fernando de la Mora Salcedo — a Mexican foreign service officer who studied law at the University of New Mexico and served at the Mexican Consulates in El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix. In a June 13, 2010, email with the subject "Re: Get follow up from mx1? Thx," MX1 states that U.S. and Mexican law enforcement sent their "signal" by discretely brokering a deal with cartels in Tijuana, just south of San Diego, Calif., which reduced the violence in the area considerably. 

Mexican Diplomat Fernando de la Mora

It is not so much a message for the Mexican government as it is for the Sinaloa cartel and [the Juárez cartel] themselves. Basically, the message they want to send out is that Sinaloa is winning and that the violence is unacceptable. They want the CARTELS to negotiate with EACH OTHER. The idea is that if they can do this, violence will drop and the governments will allow controlled drug trades.

The email went on to say that "the major routes and methods for bulk shipping into the US" from Ciudad Juárez, right across the border from El Paso, Texas, "have already been negotiated with US authorities" and that large shipments of drugs from the Sinaloa cartel "are OK with the Americans."

In July a Mexican state government spokesman told Al Jazeera that the CIA and other international security forces "don't fight drug traffickers" as much as "try to manage the drug trade." A mid-level Mexican official told Al Jazeera that based on discussions he's had with U.S. officials working in Ciudad Juárez, the allegations were true.

Fred Burton

WikiLeaks has published 2,878 out of what it says is a cache of 5 million internal Stratfor emails (dated between July 2004 and December 2011) obtained by the hacker collective Anonymous around Christmas.  The accused LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond, a 27-year-old Chicago man was told by the court that he could be sentenced to life in prison for compromising the computers of Stratfor. Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday that he could be sentenced to serve anywhere from 360 months-to-life if convicted on all charges relating to last year’s hack of Strategic Forecasting. Hammond is not likely to take the stand until next year, but so far has been imprisoned for eight months without trial. Legal proceedings in the case might soon be called into question, however, after it’s been revealed that Judge Preska’s husband was a victim of the Stratfor hack.

Jeremy Hammond

There are usually just three ways for a trafficker to leave a Mexican drug cartel: go to prison, get killed, or become a government informant. Most criminals who become informants do so because they've been arrested and squeezed, encouraged to betray their criminal employers in exchange for leniency. But this Sinaloa insider had an unusual story to tell about his first encounter with U.S. federal agents. It was his boss, a top manager at the Sinaloa cartel, who encouraged him to help the Americans. 

Meet with the U.S. investigators, he was told. See how
we can help them with information.The Sinaloa insider,  acting with the full approval of his cartel, strolled into the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office for an appointment with federal investigators. He walked through a metal detector and past the portrait of the American president on the wall, then into a room with a one-way mirror. The agents he met were very polite. He was surprised by what they had to say. “One of the ICE agents said they were here to help [the Sinaloa cartel]. And to fuck the Vicente Carrillocartel. Sorry for the language. That’s exactly what they said.”

So began another small chapter in one of the most secretive aspects of the drug war: an extensive operation by Chapo Guzmán’s forces to manipulate American law enforcement to their own benefit. Guzmán’s broad strategy has been to knock off rivals and build his own cartel into the dominant criminal force south of the border. One of his tactics for achieving that has been to place his drug-dealing lieutenants as informants for the DEA and ICE. According to sources and court records, he has been carefully feeding intelligence to the Americans. Now, Newsweek has learned, there is a federal investigation into how ICE agents handled some Sinaloa informants near the border.

The implications are sobering: the Sinoloa cartel “is duping U.S. agencies into fighting its enemies,” says Prof. Tony Payan of the University of Texas at El Paso, who studies the cartel wars in Juárez. “Typical counter intelligence stuff. It’s smart. It’s so smart.” Humberto Loya- Castro, a charming and erudite Mexican lawyer who served as Guzmán’s adviser, may have been his most intriguing agent. He became a key informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration during the last decade. A former DEA official describes Loya-Castro as “astute, witty. He was extremely charismatic.” His tips led to arrests, seizures, and headlines. Many of those law-enforcement victories, though, were also triumphs for the Sinaloa cartel.

Humberto Loya- Castro

Loya-Castro was indicted by the United States in 1995, along with Guzmán. Back then, the lawyer was known by the alias “Licenciado Perez”—Lawyer Perez. The charges say he “protected the drugs and money of the Guzmán organization in Mexico by paying money to Mexican authorities” and “ensured that if key members of the Guzmán organization were arrested they did not remain in custody.”

Five years after the indictment, while Guzmán was still locked up, Loya-Castro first approached American officials, offering to feed them information. To appreciate his potential value, imagine if the leader of North Korea or Iran had a lawyer who offered to become an undercover U.S. operative. As a compadre of the Sinaloa boss, Loya-Castro had information that most investigators could only fantasize about. In 2005 he made it formal, signing paperwork that made him an official confidential informant for the DEA. Because he was a fugitive from justice, facing an outstanding warrant, a special DEA committee had to sign off on the whole operation.

He was a productive spy, handing over what seemed like ever more vital information, mostly about the Sinaloa cartel’s enemies. The DEA agent assigned to handle him was a relatively new investigator named Manuel Castanon. He had spent five years working for the Border Patrol, then joined the DEA in 1999. He was assigned to a special task force based out of San Diego—a unit that wasn't focused on the Sinaloa cartel. Rather, Castanon and his group were tasked with fighting one of Guzmán’s closest rivals, the Tijuana cartel, headed by the notoriously brutal Arellano Félix brothers.

The Tijuana cartel was small, but it was important because it controlled the vital smuggling routes through Baja California and San Diego. Both the DEA and Chapo Guzmán had an interest in its demise. One day Loya-Castro called Castanon to set up an urgent meeting. At a briefing with DEA officials, Loya-Castro warned them of a grave threat to their agents coming from one of Chapo’s enemies. He explained he had been dining with a former Mexican official when the official’s Nextel radio beeped. The caller was a member of the embattled Tijuana cartel who proceeded to outline a series of illegal plans. Loya-Castro could hear the whole conversation as if it were on a speaker phone  The Tijuana cartel was hiring a trained sniper nicknamed “the Monster,” Loya-Castro said, to shoot DEA agents and frighten them into leaving Tijuana. (A WikiLeaks cable describes the incident, and while Loya-Castro is not named in it, Newsweek has learned that he was the confidential source called “CS-01-013562.”)

The intended effect of such a tip was almost surely to focus the DEA on Guzmán’s rivals. It apparently worked: the Tijuana cartel has been mostly dismantled, and Chapo Guzmán has taken over lucrative territory. All along, Loya-Castro apparently insisted to his handlers that he had Guzmán wrapped around his finger. Guzmán, he said, was gulled into thinking that Loya-Castro was loyal to him. “His point to us,” says David Gaddis, a former top DEA official who oversaw operations in Mexico, Central America, and Canada, “was that ‘because of my position, Chapo has absolute, unfettered confidence in who I am and what I'm doing.’”

“I do think he was telling Chapo, ‘Hey, I'm meeting these guys,’” Gaddis tells Newsweek, “and Chapo allowed him to do it.”

Loya-Castro’s material was so rich—so helpful in various cases—that in 2008 the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego had the indictment against him thrown out. And the intelligence kept coming. In December 2009, in an operation trumpeted around the world, Mexican Marines encircled and killed Arturo Beltrán Leyva, a leading drug lord who had splintered away from the Sinaloa group. In Chapo territory in Nogales, Sonora, residents fired pistols in the air to celebrate, according to Malcolm Beith’s book on Guzmán, The Last Narco.

It’s been reported that the Americans provided intelligence that led to Beltrán’s death. They even coordinated the signal intercepts that allowed the Mexican Marines to move in, according to a source who was involved. A source close to the cartel leadership says intelligence for the operation also came from Loya-Castro. In essence, it seems he had helped the Americans put a feather in their cap, while killing off one of his master’s worst enemies.

By this time, some people in DEA management were beginning to ask questions. The top target for the DEA was supposed to be Chapo Guzmán, and Loya-Castro wasn't doing anything at all on that front. Gaddis, who left the agency in 2011, says he spoke to the agents who handled Loya-Castro and pushed them to get information that would lead to Guzmán. The conversations went like this, Gaddis recalls: “I want you guys to turn up the heat and start having him work more effectively against the No. 1 guy.” But according to Gaddis, “that never came to fruition.”

Double- and triple-dealing is a danger in any spy operation, something to be guarded against. “You should not allow the informant to control you,” says John Fernandes, a 27-year veteran of the DEA whose last job was running the San Diego division. “That doesn't mean they won’t try. Manipulation is part of life.” Still, Fernandes maintains, in general “the DEA does an outstanding job of applying stringent standards.”

Gaddis says Loya-Castro did occasionally provide intelligence about the Sinaloa cartel, but not about its top rungs. And at least one internal DEA exchange cited in court documents indicates he was chiefly providing intelligence about the Sinaloa’s opposition. Gaddis, who now runs a security company called G-Global Protection Solutions, says he had believed Loya-Castro was a “double agent” the DEA used against Guzmán, but he’s now convinced he was more like a “triple agent.”

Jesus Manuel Fierro-Mendez

Like most cops in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Jesus Manuel Fierro-Mendez was dirty. In fact, soon after being promoted to the position of captain, he was smuggling enormous quantities of cocaine into the United States. And when Fierro-Mendez quit his job in the spring of 2007, after someone tried to kill him, he went to work for the Sinaloa drug cartel, the 47-year-old Fierro-Mendez testified in an El Paso court against Fernando Ontiveros-Arambula, his former boss in the Sinaloa cartel in Juarez – and one of Chapo Guzman’s top lieutenants. And Fierro-Mendez’s testimony contained some unexpected bombshells.

Nevertheless, when drug dealer and former police captain Fierro-Mendez testified in an El Paso court this winter, he explained that when he was smuggling kilos of cocaine into the U.S., he was also working as an informant for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service – which investigates drug smuggling.

“And was Chapo Guzman aware that you and others were giving information to ICE?” he was asked by the prosecutor. “Yes.”

Chapo Guzmán made his move to wrest control of Ciudad Juárez from the local cartel roughly six years ago, and he did so with help. He eventually hired local police captain Manuel Fierro Méndez, who has since been sentenced to 27 years in a U.S. prison. Fierro Méndez was also one of the informants Guzmán planted in U.S. law enforcement. We know this because Fierro Méndez would later testify in U.S. federal court, as a prosecution witness, that he was sent by the cartel to the ICE office in El Paso to give up specific intelligence about the men Guzmán was trying to eliminate.

“You were on a mission from Chapo to come provide information, correct?” he was asked in court in 2010. “Yes,” he replied. Fierro Méndez said he was like a “spokesperson,” passing information to ICE from Chapo, “information we would, obviously, get from the levels high up.”

“Was the Sinaloa cartel trying to use ICE to eliminate its rivals in La Linea?” a prosecutor asked. “That’s right,” Fierro Méndez replied. “And was Chapo Guzmán aware?” came the question. “That’s right,” said the former police officer.

He made it plain that that the cartel strictly forbade him to give up anything about the Sinaloa cartel, however. “Were you allowed to give information about Chapo?” “It wasn't allowed,” the dirty cop said, “and it wasn't asked of me.” In other words, he testified, the ICE agents he spoke to never required him to provide intelligence about the boss of his own criminal organization.

Such information did lead to significant drug busts, which helps explain why American agents were so eager to play along. The costs, however, are clear. “Now the Sinaloa cartel understands how you work, who your agents are, and what you want,” says the University of Texas’s Payan. “They are using you, and in the end that particular cartel is going to come out of it strong. The Sinaloa cartel is not only virtually untouched but it is magnified ... They don’t have any Mexican competition. At home, they are king.”

In all, at least five important figures in the Sinaloa cartel traipsed into the ICE offices in El Paso to relay information about the Juárez cartel. They provided tips about warehouses, drug routes, murders. They gave up information on who their enemies bribed and what their organizational charts were. And now, as Payan says, “the Juárez cartel is practically down to ashes, and to a large extent it was done with intelligence passed on by the Sinaloa cartel.”

A federal prosecutor based in San Antonio who has tried cases against some Sinaloa-cartel members, including those who helped ICE, concurs on that point. I asked him if the information campaign by Chapo Guzmán helped the Sinaloa cartel take over Juárez. “It did,” he said. “That’s what this was all about: because of the intensity of the struggle, they were trying to exploit every possible thing they could to get the upper hand.”

In a case ongoing in federal court in Chicago, lawyers for a top Sinaloa-cartel figure maintain that the DEA’s relationship with Guzmán’s lawyer was a virtual conspiracy to allow the Sinaloa cartel free rein. Arguing in front of the judge, one lawyer insisted that “this fellow Loya is not a normal informant. He’s an agent. He’s an agent for the Sinaloa cartel.”

Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla

A high-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody alleges that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for information used to take down rival cartels, according to court documents. The statement was made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the Sinaloa cartel’s “logistics coordinator” in charge of arranging massive drug shipments from Latin America to the United States as well as the son of cartel leader Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia and a close associate to kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Zambada-Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities in March 2009 and extradited to Chicago to face drug trafficking charges.

From the court document:
[T]he United States government at its highest levels entered into agreements with cartel leaders to act as informants against rival cartels and received benefits in return, including, but not limited to, access to thousands of weapons which helped them continue their business of smuggling drugs into Chicago and throughout the United States, and to continue wreaking havoc on the citizens and law enforcement in Mexico.  

Zambada-Niebla believes that he, like the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel, was "immune from arrest or prosecution" because he also actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.
In its official response to the discovery motion, the government stated that there are “classified materials” regarding the case but argued they “do not support the defendant’s claim that he was promised immunity or public authority for his actions.” 

Zambada-Niebla's lawyer is seeking government "documents, files, recordings, notes, and additional forms of evidence" that would support claims that federal agents personally assured Zambada-Niebla that "he would not be arrested, that the agents knew of his prior cooperation... that they just wanted to continue receiving information... [and] that the arrangements with him had been approved at the highest levels of the United States government."

Zambada-Niebla was allegedly arrested five hours after he met with the federal agents.
Jason Howerton of the Blaze reports that the documents detailing the relationship between the federal government and the Sinaloa Cartel "have still not been released or subjected to review — citing matters of national security."
The motion for discovery claims the agreement between the U.S. government and the Sinaloa cartel began sometime before 2004 and lasted at least until March 2009 as part of America's "Divide and Conquer" strategy against other cartels, in which the U.S. would use "one drug organization to help against others."

Ismael Zambada Garcia. El Mayo

From the court document:
Under that agreement, the Sinaloa Cartel under the leadership of defendant’s father, Ismael Zambada-Niebla and “Chapo” Guzman, were given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States and were also protected by the United States government from arrest and prosecution in return for providing information against rival cartels which helped Mexican and United States authorities capture or kill thousands of rival cartel members.

The Flores twins, 31-year-old Chicago drug traffickers, now in U.S. custody and acting as informants in a plea deal whose details remain secret, will be the star witnesses in the Chicago trial of Jesús Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a head of the Sinaloa cartel and the biggest Mexican drug kingpin ever to be prosecuted in a U.S. courtroom.

In court filings, Zambada-Niebla's lawyers claim he, like the Flores brothers, was working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and that in exchange for intel on rival cartels, the U.S. government turned a blind eye as "tons of illicit drugs continued to be smuggled into Chicago and other parts of the United States." In the months building up to the trial, a litany of court documents has been released that describe Chicago as a major distribution hub. The filings also suggest that damning details will be revealed about U.S. cooperation with some of the world's most powerful narcos.

Vicente Zambada-Niebla caught the attention of the Latin American press corps last March when he entered a plea of not guilty by reason of a pre-existing immunity agreement with the DEA. The two-pronged defense argued immunity and "public authority," a specific kind of immunity that claims he acted under the auspices of the U.S. government. Zambada-Niebla asserts that U.S. law enforcement gave him carte blanche to coordinate the cartel's smuggling operations into Chicago and throughout the U.S. and permitted the remittance of billions of dollars in cash back to Mexico. He further alleges that the U.S. was complicit in arming the Sinaloa cartel with semiautomatic weapons, which it used to wage war on its foes.

On September 9, federal prosecutors filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Chicago seeking to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), in the trial of Sinaloa cartel operative, Vicente Zambada-Niebla who alleges an agreement exists between the U.S. government and his bosses. The CIPA was enacted over 30 years ago to prevent public disclosure in criminal cases of classified information.

Vicente Zambada-Niebla

Zambada-Niebla, his head now shaved and skin tightly drawn against his cheekbones, was transferred in October to a federal prison in Milan, Michigan. But his lawyers claim the conditions in prison have actually worsened, with new restrictions placed on his ability to see visitors and to receive his mail on time. The location of the prison, nearly five hours from Chicago, has brought accusations from the defence that the government is hampering his lawyers' ability to communicate with their client.

The breaks the Flores twins have received for cooperating with the government have made for contentious courtroom exchanges between the government prosecutors and the defense team, who have been filing competing motions dating back to July 2011. At the heart of the issue is the fight for government documents revealing communication between federal agents and cartel members, and the 32-year-old Classified Information Procedures Act the prosecution has cited in denying the release of the overwhelming bulk of these documents.

Alvin Michaelson, a lawyer for the defence  complained at a pretrial hearing last December that the government was withholding information that impugned the credibility of the Flores twins as witnesses. "We know that there are witnesses that have been interviewed here in the Chicago area who...talk about the reputation of the Flores brothers as murderers, as thieves, liars," Michaelson said before Judge Castillo. "No one trusts the Flores brothers, no one, and...those are the two key witnesses in this case. We believe, we know, we've heard that the government gave enormous benefits to the Flores brothers' families, friends, including the ability to keep their ill-gotten gains while they were working with the government; that agents here in Chicago perhaps...knew about the situation.


By 2001, the Flores brothers had become the main connection to Chicago for several of the leading Mexican drug cartels. They were the principal link in a drug-supply chain that connected Colombian producers with Mexican smugglers and on to North American consumers. According to court documents, the drugs were delivered to the U.S. by a variety of means—on speedboats, fishing vessels, Boeing 747 cargo planes, container ships and tractor trailers, and even by submarine.

Court filings estimate their annual income at $700 million, according to a 2009 Washington Post article; the Flores crew reportedly shrink-wrapped the cash proceeds and hid them inside condominiums and brick split-levels in Chicago, Hinsdale, Palos Hills and Plainfield registered to relatives and girlfriends with no criminal records. 

Flores twins

To get an idea of just how large the Flores operation was, one only needs to compare their $700 million estimated annual income to the total street value of all drugs seized in Chicago: $208 million worth in 2009, $139 million in 2008, $118 million in 2007, $143 million in 2006 and $235 million in 2005, according to the Chicago Police Department. In any given year, drug seizures never reached a third of the value of what the Flores crew dealt annually. After the Flores empire was dismantled, cocaine prices surged on the streets of Chicago, from $18,000 per kilo to $29,000 in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.


The Flores twins may be important enough to the government's case against Zambada-Niebla for the record of their once-vast criminal empire to be expunged, maybe they will be ghosted off to some tropical paradise under the witness protection programme. But by the end of what stands to be a long and drawn-out trial, what will likely prove most important is what sensitive details are revealed about the true nature of the relationship that federal agencies had with Zambada-Niebla and the Sinaloa cartel. Did the U.S. allow tons of illegal narcotics into its borders, as Zambada-Niebla asserts? His testimony versus the Flores twins will ultimately decide the outcome of the most important narco case to grace a Chicago federal courthouse. 

The FARC

April 13, 2013, 2:10 pm

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As the biggest irregular army in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC) operates in various regions of the country in search of resources to fund their 50-year-old war against the government. The FARC is the oldest and most important guerilla group in the Western Hemisphere. It has long financed its political and military battle against the Colombian government by kidnapping, extortion and participating in the drug trade on various levels.

In spite of a concerted effort by the Colombian government, with close to $8 billion in US assistance, the rebel group still operates in 25 of Colombia's 32 provinces and is estimated to have aproximatley 8,000 guerrillas in its ranks.

The FARC’s roots can be traced back to the outbreaks of violence that afflicted rural Colombia following the assassination of the populist leader of the Liberal Party, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, in Bogota on April 9, 1948. The assassination touched off a sectarian struggle, first in Bogota and later in the countryside, which started out as a battle between the country’s two chief parties, the Liberals and Conservatives. The violence, which became known as "La Violencia," would leave close to 200,000 dead during the next 15 years. 

Alfonso Cano

The rebel group adopted the name Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 1966, and began a slow, steady rise. The growth of the illegal drug market helped. In the mid-1970s, the guerrillas changed their bylaws and began collecting taxes from the numerous marijuana growers in the south of the country. They later expanded that mandate to include coca leaf plantations. During the same period the FARC began kidnapping en masse and extorting large and small businesses. In the early 1980s, the FARC began taxing cocaine laboratories that operated in their areas of influence.

The FARC is a complex group with a well defined structure and line of command. It's organizational structure has evolved throughout the years as a result of a process of adaptation to the main challenges of the internal conflict. Ostensibly hierarchical, the geography and size of Colombia has made it nearly impossible for the central command, known as the Secretariat, to exercise control over the whole organization, which is broken up into fronts, with the exception of various special forces units that tend to roam where they are most needed or to carry out a special operation. The FARC has a vast support network of logistical experts in bombing, transportation, kidnapping, arms trafficking, food storage, etc., and manages militia groups in the cities. 

There is much discussion about whether this structure and modus operandi constitute a "cartel," or a criminal organization. While it is true that parts of the FARC traffic in illegal drugs in increasing quantities, kidnap, extort, and partake in other criminal activities that undermine their mission, their overall structure, recruitment, modus operandi and purpose remain centred in political rather than financial returns.

In recent years, the rebel group has suffered numerous setbacks. In November 2011, FARC’s top commander, Alfonso Cano, 63, was killed by the armed forces near a rebel camp in the remote south-western part of the country. In peace talks in Havana in 2013, Colombia's FARC guerrillas called on the Colombian government to consider legalizing coca cultivation. the FARC called for the creation of a "land bank" of unused or underused areas that could be distributed to landless peasants and for a more democratic method of rural planning. The land would include "latifundia," or large rural estates, confiscated from drug traffickers. The proposal marks a retreat from the previous FARC position that called for the seizure and redistribution of all latifundia.

FARC negotiator Tanja Nijmeijer

The rebel’s chief negotiator, Ivan Marquez, proposed that small amounts of coca, poppy and marijuana cultivation be legalized as part of a land reform initiative in the Latin American nation.

"We need to reorientate the use of land toward sustainable agricultural production," 

According to  the Bogota daily El Tiempo  Colombia’s leftist FARC rebels smuggle U.S.-bound cocaine via Venezuela, Panama and the Pacific, citing unnamed U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sources.

The information was obtained from documents found on the computer belonging to Edgar Tovar, commander of the 48th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who was killed by the army.

An unnamed police expert told El Tiempo that the 48th Front stockpiles cocaine in Putumayo, bordering Ecuador and Peru, the 30th Front protects the shipments all the way to Cañon de Garrapatas, in the north-western province of Choco, and the 57th Front moves the drugs into neighbouring Panama.

A Drug Family in the Winner’s Circle

April 14, 2013, 2:36 pm

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Just three years ago, Jose Trevino Morales was working as a bricklayer in Texas, and his wife, Zulema Flores Trevino, was an office clerk for a staffing company.

They lived in Balch Springs, Texas, outside Dallas. They raised four children and made less than $60,000 total in 2009 from those jobs. They often only had about $2,000 in their bank account.

In late 2009, that all changed. That fall, Jose Trevino started up a racehorse operation.
It was funded — the FBI says — by millions of dollars from the powerful and violent Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel run by his two younger brothers.The FBI claims the two brothers, over the last two years, have funneled $1 million a month into the United States to purchase race horses.

Last year, Jose Trevino and his wife moved their operation to a sprawling quarter-horse ranch near Lexington, south of Oklahoma City. He named the ranch Zule Farms, after his wife. There they made improvements and cared for about 400 horses.

Newcomers rarely make it into the winner’s circle at the A.A.F,considered the Kentucky Derby of quarter horse racing. 

Yet in September 2010, a beaming band of men waving Mexican flags and miniature piñatas swept into Ruidoso, N.M., to claim the million-dollar prize with a long-shot colt named Mr. Piloto. Leading the revelry at the track was Mr. Piloto’s owner, José Treviño Morales, 45, a self-described brick mason who had grown up poor in Mexico. Across the border, Ramiro Villarreal, an affable associate who had helped acquire the winning colt, celebrated at a bar with friends.

As for the man who made the whole day possible, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, he was living on the run, one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world. Mr. Treviño, a younger brother of José Treviño, is second in command of Mexico’s Zetas drug trafficking organization. Thin with a furrowed brow, he has become the organization’s lead enforcer — infamous for dismembering his victims while they are still alive.


To get in on the action at American tracks, Miguel Ángel Treviño needed someone he could trust to pick a winner. For that, he turned to Mr. Villarreal.

Mr. Villarreal was an unlikely horseman, the socially awkward son of a bookkeeper and teacher known for his build and bottomless appetite as “El Gordo,” or “Fatso.” He began attending auctions as a child, and developed an uncanny ability to spot horses that may not have come from the best lineage, but whose stride or attitude suggested an exceptional capacity for speed.

Mr. Villarreal’s parents said he started buying horses as a teenager, mostly borrowing from relatives and friends. Still, he never seemed to have enough to purchase the kinds of horses that could compete for major prizes. Nor did the strikingly effeminate man ever develop the social skills needed to fit into the macho world of breeders and trainers.

In some ways, said one friend, he stopped trying. For a while, he named his horses after runway models — like Campbell, as in Naomi, and Elle, as in Macpherson — because he was captivated by women’s fashion.

Mr. Villarreal got his big break in 2006, when he cobbled together $10,500 to buy a colt at an auction at Los Alamitos, records show. He took the horse to Mexico, named it “El Sicario” — which means “The Assassin” — and entered it in the parejera circuit, where it began to beat younger, better-rated competitors.

“That horse got 40’s attention,” said one of Mr. Villarreal’s friends. “He told Ramiro, ‘I want you to buy horses for me.’ ”

Soon, the younger Mr. Villarreal’s name began appearing on the lists of the top buyers at auctions in California, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. His first champion was Tempting Dash, which won more than $600,000 in 2009, set a track record during the Texas Classic Futurity and gave Tremor its first victory in a million-dollar race.

No matter how successful, Mr. Villarreal always showed deference to his boss, calling him “Papi.” When Miguel Ángel Treviño wanted to see Tempting Dash for himself, Mr. Villarreal drove the horse, along with dozens of others, to Mexico.

Getting back was more complicated. To avoid inspections, quarantines and other procedures required for bringing livestock into the United States, Mr. Villarreal had trainers sneak the horses back across the border, herding them just after dawn through the Rio Grande.

As much as Miguel Ángel Treviño relied on Mr. Villarreal, he needed his brother, José, to be the face of his fledgling American horse business.

José Treviño, the clean-cut father of three, with a small tattooed Tremor logo on his hand, almost always attended races with his family at his side. He often credited his success to a combination of divine intervention and dumb luck.

Jose Trevino Morales

At the start, José Treviño seemed reticent in the spotlight, avoiding reporters by pretending he did not speak good English. But the more races he won, the more comfortable he seemed with cameras and microphones. People who knew him said he never sought out the media, but never refused to talk when they called.

When the colt named Mr. Piloto won the All American Futurity in Ruidoso, N.M., racing writers called it the “biggest upset in All-American history,” and marvelled at how Mr. Treviño, with a “green-as-grass” horse, could beat competitors with better qualifying times and world-class jockeys.

Mr. Piloto may have had help. The F.B.I. affidavit said Miguel Ángel Treviño boasted to associates that he had paid some $10,000 to “gatekeepers to hold back the horses competing against Mr. Piloto.”Last year a sorrel filly named Separate Fire swept the Ed Burke Futurity at Los Alamitos, Calif., delivering José Treviño his third race where the top prizes were worth $1 million — a record.

Last year, said people who know him, José Treviño moved his family from a modest suburban house in Mesquite, Tex., where he said he worked in the construction industry, to a large ranch outside Lexington, Okla.

The 70-acre ranch, Zule Farms, is named after his wife, Zulema, a former secretary who told people that she kept the books for Tremor. A person familiar with the ranch said that Mr. Treviño had converted a cattle barn on the property into a breeding facility, with state-of-the-art labs and special stalls where mares are implanted with embryos.

“There’s no way all the money he’s putting into that ranch came from being a brick mason. It’s just not logical,” said a person familiar with Zule Farms.

Federal authorities said that José and Zulema Treviño earned less than $70,000 in 2008 and less than $60,000 in 2009.

Even so, he bought horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, according to the affidavit. On at least a couple occasions, he had other people sign for the company’s major purchases, quarter horse industry records show. One deal was signed by a teenager who looked too young to drive. The other was handled by the scion of a prominent quarter horse family, Tyler Graham, who stunned a packed auction house in Oklahoma by agreeing to pay a record $875,000 for a broodmare named Dashin Follies.

At the time of the sale, Mr. Graham said he was buying the horse on behalf of a client he would only identify as “a Mexico resident.” Shortly afterwards  records show, he turned the horse over to Tremor. Mr. Graham has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

An industry expert who attended the auction said the sale prompted more rumours  But he said sketchy deals are not uncommon in an industry where payments are made in cash and records are notoriously — even deliberately — unreliable.

“If someone walks into an auction with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and refuses to give his name, no one is going turn him away,” the industry expert said. “What they’ll tell him is, ‘We’ll register the horse in any name you want.’ ”

As José Treviño’s prominence grew in the quarter horse community, so did Miguel Ángel Treviño’s place in the drug trade. By the end of 2010, he had helped lead a brutal expansion so deep into Mexico that the Zetas became not only a priority for Mexico’s security forces, but also an enemy that inspired other drug organizations to join forces and fight.

Miguel Ángel Treviño’s control over drug warehouses and hit squads across the border also compelled United States authorities to offer a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

At the same time, Mr. Villarreal was falling out of favour with Tremor. He was openly upset that the Zetas had forced him to transfer ownership of one of his best racehorses to Tremor, according to the affidavit, which said the cartel used “the threat of death” to compel associates to sign over horses or help them move money.

Mr. Villarreal was also in debt because the Treviño brothers barely paid him enough to cover travel costs, friends said. Mr. Villarreal began padding his expenses, prompting Miguel Ángel Treviño to suspect him of skimming money from Tremor, the friends said.

In September 2010, Mr. Villarreal was travelling to a horse auction in Oklahoma when he was detained by D.E.A. agents during a layover at a Houston airport. A spokesman for the agency refused to comment on its relationship with Mr. Villarreal.

But several law enforcement officials familiar with the case said agents held him for up to six hours, questioning him about his ties to Miguel Ángel Treviño. Before releasing him, the agents confiscated Mr. Villarreal’s cellphone and computer, and ordered him to meet with them a few days later.

When Mr. Villarreal returned, the agents said he could either work for them as an informant or face being prosecuted himself, according to the officials. The D.E.A. wanted Mr. Villarreal to help track Miguel Ángel Treviño’s whereabouts and then lure him into the United States.

Mr. Villarreal pleaded that he was too nervous to pull off the ruse, adding that Miguel Ángel Treviño would never trust him enough to follow him across the border.

But the D.E.A. insisted and a beleaguered Mr. Villarreal relented, the officials said.

At least once, Mr. Villarreal tipped off his handlers when Miguel Ángel Treviño went to a racetrack in Nuevo Laredo.

“Mexican authorities took pictures of 40, but they didn't try to arrest him,” said one of Mr. Villarreal’s friends. “They told Ramiro that they were afraid too many people might get killed. Ramiro told them if they waited any longer, he was going to get killed.”

Villareals charred remains found in car

Sometime around the end of that year, Miguel Ángel Treviño summoned Mr. Villarreal to a meeting. Mr. Villarreal’s friends recounted the following incident as he had described it to them.

A pickup point was arranged in Laredo, where Mr. Villarreal was blindfolded and then driven into the Mexican desert by gang members.

Minutes dragged as Mr. Villarreal waited for Miguel Ángel Treviño. He saw two vats filled with a liquid he presumed to be acid, one of the trafficker’s preferred methods for disposing of bodies.

Miguel Ángel Treviño arrived about an hour later in a car with more lieutenants and an unknown man, who was also wearing a blindfold.

The trafficker hugged Mr. Villarreal and asked, “You’re not screwing me, are you, Gordo?”

“No, of course not, Papi,” Mr. Villarreal answered.

Saying he would be back “in a minute,” Miguel Ángel Treviño walked over to the unknown man, took off his blindfold, shot him in the head and ordered his men to dump the body in one of the vats of acid.

Mr. Villarreal passed out. He told his friends he did not know how long he was unconscious, but when he awoke Miguel Ángel Treviño was slapping him in the face and laughing.

“What’s wrong, Gordo?” he joked. “You can’t handle seeing me kill someone? Next time, I'm going to have you do it.”

“No Papi,” Mr. Villarreal said. “I don’t want there to be a next time.”

The drug trafficker got back into his car and drove away. Mr. Villarreal was taken back to Laredo, where he immediately implored the D.E.A. to release him from their agreement.

“When I met him he was a complete mess; profusely sweating, gangrene in one leg, and barely able to walk,” said a former law enforcement official. “He was in between a rock and a hard place: either stay in the United States and risk going to prison, or go back to Mexico and risk getting killed.”

Miguel Ángel Treviño

In the end, Mr. Villarreal, 38, continued informing for the D.E.A. and in March, Miguel Ángel Treviño summoned him to another meeting.

On March 10, 2011, Mr. Villarreal’s car was found incinerated outside Nuevo Laredo. There was so little left of him that authorities took DNA samples from the ashes to identify his remains. One federal law enforcement official said some agents believed his death was an accident, but acknowledged that no investigation was conducted.

Mr. Villarreal’s father said he had little hope of ever finding the truth. Asked who he thought was behind Mr. Villarreal’s death, the round, balding man looked over at his wife, tears streaming down her cheeks, and echoed a refrain heard from so many Mexican crime victims. “If we ask questions, we could be the next ones to die, so for us, this is a closed chapter.”

Whispers of a “mob hit” spread across the quarter horse industry. In March, law enforcement agents even raided Tremor’s stables at Los Alamitos racetrack after receiving tips that Omar Treviño had flown there to look at some new horses. But none of it seemed to slow down Tremor’s business.

Last weekend, at Los Alamitos, a Tremor colt named Mr. Ease Cartel ran the second-fastest qualifying time for a million-dollar race scheduled for June 24. When Jose Treviño’s daughter was married recently, guests included prominent figures in the industry, and Track magazine covered the “big event” online.

“If he had been some thug, or the stereotypical person you’d expect to be in a drug cartel, then maybe people wouldn’t have accepted him and done business with him,” a former trainer said of José Treviño. “But he’s a really nice guy, so none of us wanted to believe he could have anything to do with the killing going on in Mexico.”

The Grahams the  prominent Texas family with connections to the state’s top officials is alleged to have purchased and boarded horses for a Mexican drug cartel engaged in money laundering, according to court records.

Federal indictments recently unsealed in Austin allege that 14 defendants with Spanish surnames used elite U.S. racehorses to launder millions of dollars of drug money for Mexico’s ruthless Los Zetas cartel. The indictments also implicate the renowned South-West Stallion Station breeding stables outside Austin, run by a veterinarian named Charles Graham and his grandson Tyler. Over the past decade, they have contributed almost $250,000 to federal and state politicians led by Texas’ top three officials. In 2008 Gov. Perry appointed Dr. Graham to the now-defunct Texas Department of Rural Affairs. The Grahams haven’t been charged with wrongdoing, and their names don’t appear in the indictments. But allegations made against their stables in the indictments suggest that the Zetas cartel paid the Grahams a small fortune in recent years. In all, Tyler Graham bought more than $1 million worth of horses that ended up in the hands of the Zetas cartel, which made at least $550,000 in payments to the Grahams’ stable, according to trade publications and the indictment. The Grahams didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

Charles Graham

While never mentioning the Grahams, the money-laundering indictment alleges that the Zeta conspirators paid their South-West Stallion stables $550,000 last July to board and breed Zeta racehorses. One way the cartel laundered money, according to the indictment, was to let cartel flunkies hold title to a horse until it won a big race or became lucrative through the sale of breeding rights. Then backdated contracts were drawn up suggesting that Jose Treviño—one of three brothers at the centre of the conspiracy—presciently bought the champ on the relative cheap just before it hit the big leagues, according to the indictments. One Zeta horse was not-so-subtly christened Number One Cartel.

In 2010 Tyler Graham went to Oklahoma City to attend the horse auction at Heritage Place, a 40-acre facility co-owned by Charles Graham, according to TRACK Magazine. Amid a global economic crisis, average sales prices at the auction increased by 14 percent over the year before. Driving this inflation, Tyler Graham placed the winning bids on the event’s two most-expensive horses. He bid $250,000 for a young mare named Coronita Cartel and a record $875,000 for the breeding mare Dashin Follies. TRACK Magazine reported at the time that Graham shipped the mares home to South-West Stallion Stables—but not on his own account. The trade publication reported that Graham “was acting as an agent for an undisclosed buyer who reportedly is a Mexican resident.”

Describing that same auction, the recent indictments allege that defendant Jose Treviño “directed the purchase” of both horses “in a nominee name.” Then a company controlled by Mexican businessman Alejandro Barrandas allegedly wired more than $900,000 while defendant Luis Gerardo Aguirre allegedly supplied another $100,000 in cash, according to the indictments. Two other defendants allegedly then paid to board the horses for six weeks at the stables before the prize horse were shipped to Jose Treviño’s Oklahoma ranch, according to the indictment.

In August, Tyler Graham posted photos on Facebook of some of his yearlings, including Tahiti Cartel. Sired by Carona Cartel, the horse sold at Heritage Place in September 2011 for $50,000. Among Graham’s friends on Facebook: Ramiro Villarreal, a gifted Mexican horseman who Miguel Treviño, the second-highest ranking Zeta, recruited to help build his quarter-horse enterprise. At some point, Villarreal reluctantly became a DEA informant, according to The New York Times; in March 2011, his charred remains were found in a car outside Nuevo Laredo.

Tyler Graham

Trade publications and the recent indictments indicate that Tyler Graham bought more than $1 million worth of horses that wound up with the Zetas and that cartel made at least $550,000 in payments to the Grahams’ stable. It’s not clear if the Grahams knew who they were buying horses for. The copy of the indictments made public redacts the name of one unknown defendant.

Not in doubt are the Graham’s political connections. Since 2001, the Grahams have contributed $32,025 to Perry’s campaign account, accord to state records. They’ve also donated to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst ($17,100), House Speaker Joe Straus ($15,500), a San Antonio Republican, and state Sen. Kirk Watson ($15,500), an Austin Democrat.


Miguel Ángel Treviño, known as Zeta-40, or just 40, was never in the military. But he became useful to the Zetas for his experience moving contraband across the border.

Law enforcement authorities say the Zetas have been able to rapidly expand their reach beyond Mexico’s borders with the United States and Guatemala. And while other Mexican drug organizations prefer to keep themselves and their money close to home, the Zetas have established outposts as far as South America and West Africa.

Spy Boss's Wife Ran Cocaine Ring

April 16, 2013, 3:35 pm

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Sheryl and Frank Get 20 Years

The trial had the makings of a Hollywood thriller: religion, drugs, bling, working-class whites and SA’s black elite.

Sheryl Cwele, wife of South Africa’s intelligence minister and, her Nigeriansidekick, Frank Nabolisa have been convicted of drug trafficking for recruiting young women to smuggle drugs into the country.


Religion was often evident during the trial and seemed to be a connection between Sheryl and two women she was accused of recruiting to traffic cocaine, Tessa Beetge and Charmaine Moss. The trial also highlighted how SA has been caught up in international drug trafficking – and how white women from resort towns along KwaZulu-Natal’s south coast – usually unemployed and desperate for money – are lured into becoming drug carriers.

Cwele, who is married to minister Siyabonga Cwele in charge of state security, recruited women to act as drug mules in order to smuggle cocaine into South Africa from Turkey and South America, a judge found.  She was found guilty of drug trafficking by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Judge Piet Koen said it was clear that Cwele and her co-accused Nigerian Frank Nabolisa had worked together to recruit two women to work as agents to transport drugs.  The two had pleaded not guilty to dealing or conspiring to deal in drugs, procuring a woman called Charmaine Moss to collect drugs in Turkey, and procuring another woman, Tessa Beetge, to smuggle cocaine from South America.

In a spectacular fail, Cwele had appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) against her conviction alone, while Nabolisa appealed both his conviction and sentence. The SCA obviously saw nothing new in the case and dismissed their appeals against their convictions. Not only that but the court set aside the sentences imposed by the trial court and replaced them with a sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for each of them.

Beetge Drug Mule

Beetge, of the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, was arrested when 10kg of cocaine was found in her luggage in Brazil in 2008, and is serving a jail sentence in Sao Paolo.

Charmaine Moss, a professional beauty therapist and former police officer, told the court she met Cwele in 2005 when they both took their children to a choir on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast.

They lost contact and then "bumped" into each other in 2007 at a shopping centre, where Cwele told Moss about a job opportunity overseas. She would be a beauty therapist or a caregiver and earn R25,000 in two weeks, the court heard.

Moss decided against taking the offer when she became suspicious after Cwele introduced her to Nabolisa, who was described as an agent who organised overseas jobs.

Moss, who was told to go overseas and pick up a parcel with unspecified contents, turned down the offer when she suspected something was amiss. She turned State's witness.  Cwele promised them a salary of R25,000 for two weeks work.


Moss said in her evidence that Cwele had approached her and ­mentioned that she had worked overseas a number of times in 2005, but that she now held a permanent position with the Hibiscus Coast district municipality. "Sheryl informed her that she had been contacted again to work overseas and that she had been directed by 'the Lord' in her dream to offer 'work' to her," the judgement states. "When Charmaine showed interest in the offer, Sheryl advised her that a firm in Sandton would secure the work for her and that she would be paid R25 000 for the two weeks that she would be overseas. Her airfare would also be covered."

In conversations with Moss, Cwele referred to arrangements being made for visas and tickets by her "brother Frank". In answer to an inquiry about why her brother was involved, she responded that he was one of the partners in the firm that organised the overseas work. After some delay Moss travelled to Johannesburg, where Nabolisa had taken her to a friend's hotel, which she described as "very scary".

Moss called Cwele and told her that Nabolisa had said she should ask her [Cwele] what she [Moss] was going to do in Turkey, the judgement states.

Sidekick Frank Nabolisa

"Sheryl advised her there was nothing serious, that she should not speak to anyone and that she would be required to bring back a packet for Frank. But by then Moss had already lost interest in the overseas engagement, having decided the previous evening that she would no longer go overseas. Since she knew of the availability of courier services to deliver parcels from one country to another, she became suspicious and decided that she would go back home."

On top of the evidence from Moss, there was drug mule Tessa Beetge's arrest at São Paulo Airport in Brazil on June 13 2008 for drug trafficking, after two packets containing 9.25kg and 1.025 kg of cocaine were found in her luggage. She received a sentence of seven years and nine months' imprisonment, the judgement continues.


Beetge's mother testified that Cwele, a former neighbour had arranged their daughter's trip to Brazil after offering her a job doing administration work overseas. Charmaine Moss, had been told to travel to Turkey and pick up an unspecified parcel, but refused the assignment and instead turned state witness.

The court relied mainly on text messages and emails between Beetge and Cwele to reach its conclusion. In his ruling, Koen said that Cwele was involved in making travel arrangements for the women, and questioned the payment of such a large amount of 25,000 rands ($3,700) for work that required no qualifications.

Siyabonga Cwele has previously said that he had no knowledge of his wife’s drug dealing, and he did not attend court for the verdict. But his wife’s conviction has fuelled calls from opposition politicians for his resignation, and sparked questions about whether she took advantage of his position in government.

Critics have said that if Cwele was unaware of his wife’s drug smuggling, then he should not be in charge of the country's security and intelligence operations, Reuters reports.

Cwele’s accomplice Frank Nabolisa, a Nigerian national, was also found guilty by the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal province. Judge Piet Koen said that the pair had clearly worked together to recruit the women as drug mules.

Directed by 'the Lord' in Her Dream

Until her trip abroad, Beetge, a divorcée with two young daughters, had been living with her parents at their home in Margate. On hearing that their daughter had been offered some work overseas, her parents accompanied her to meet Cwele at her office to find out more about the job. After trying to call Nabolisa about the travel arrangements, Cwele told the family about her travels overseas and that the reason for her offering the opportunity to Beetge was because she was tired of travelling.

Beetge's mother, Marie Swanepoel, heard from her daughter on Friday June 13 2008. "Tessa reported to her that she had been arrested in São Paulo for drug trafficking," the judgement states. "After she had received the news of Tessa's arrest, Ms Swanepoel called Sheryl, who promised to call her back the next morning. Sheryl indeed called her as promised and told her that the Brazilian embassy would contact her, which never materialised."

The judgement recaps how the mother visited her daughter in prison in Brazil and brought home her cellphone, a SIM card from Peru and another from Colombia, plus a SIM card from South Africa and a suitcase, which was not the one she had left with on her trip.

Swanepoel used her daughter's password and downloaded all the data messages between Cwele and Beetge and handed the evidence to the police. Email correspondence was then obtained by an investigating officer who had visited Beetge in Brazil.

According to the judgment, Cwele's counsel conceded that she knew the business venture that was to involve Beetge was unlawful. While in Peru, Beetge wrote in an email to Cwele that she was waiting for a reply from her and Nabolisa.

Last Day Of Freedom

"Otherwise, I am still freezing my butt off in Peru, with Frank that is telling me to wait and wait and wait, and then when it's time to go I am ready and they cancel everything again. So has Frank told you when I am leaving??? or don't you know?"

Cwele responded two days later: "Hi Tess, Frank told me about the delay which is for your own good really. I understand you are coming back on Monday/Tuesday? Keep well and avoid people who may end up asking a lot of questions. See you soon, hang in there. Sheryl Cwele."
The judgement states that Cwele recruited Beetge and worked closely with Nabolisa in arranging her return to South Africa. "She even assured Tessa that the delay in her travel arrangements was for her own good, an indication in my view that she had knowledge of the dangers associated with the trip.

"… [S]he knew that Tessa was required to bring back something which it is unlawful to possess. Tessa was thereafter arrested with cocaine in her possession. The inference is irresistible, therefore, that Sheryl knew that the unlawful substance that Tessa was required to bring back was, in fact, cocaine."

Cwele and Nabolisa had both pleaded not guilty to charges including dealing or conspiring to deal drugs, and procuring the two women to smuggle drugs into South Africa. Neither Cwele or Nabolisa chose to testify in court. In the case of Cwele, as she faces her lengthy sentence behind bars, little is known about why she would have become involved in drug dealing.


Drug mule Tessa Beetge is “on top of the world” after only now being informed about the jailing of the pair who recruited her. Beetge, 35, who is serving an eight-year sentence in a Brazilian jail, felt vindicated that Sheryl Cwele and her accomplice, Frank Nabolisa, were in jail, her mother, Marie Swanepoel, said .

“She’s always said it was Cwele and Nabolisa who were behind the whole drug trafficking case and her subsequent arrest

It emerged during that trial that Nabolisa had acquired his South African ID fraudulently after his initial one was withdrawn when he defaulted on maintenance payments to one of two South African women to whom he had been married at different times.

Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele

The conviction is the latest blow to South Africa's security services, coming on the heels of the arrest in March of the police's crime intelligence chief over a deadly love triangle a decade earlier. State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele has ordered his top three intelligence chiefs to quit.

This follows a row over official protection provided for the minister’s wife during her trial on drug-trafficking charges. State Security ministry spokesperson Brian Dube that Gibson Njenje, the head of the State Security Agency’s (SSA) domestic branch – previously known as the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) – had resigned. He would not comment on “other speculation”.

Njenje’s resignation and its acceptance “with immediate effect” was announced within the agency, which is responsible for domestic and international intelligence, Cwele also asked director-general Jeff Maqetuka and the head of the South African Secret Service – now known as the agency’s foreign branch – Moe Shaik, to leave the agency.  They have allegedly refused to quit and have sought legal advice in the past week.

Insiders in the SSA say that the breakdown in trust between the minister and his intelligence chiefs are, among others, as a result of his wife Sheryl Cwele’s drug-trafficking conviction 
The catalyst for the showdown was a deep unhappiness within the agency after Cwele allegedly ordered that his wife be afforded intelligence protection for the duration of her trial. She was, insiders claim, transported to and from her trial in official vehicles and protected by intelligence-agency officers.

Sheryl Cwele was afforded full protection for the duration of her trial, even though the agency does not have a VIP protection unit and any protection would have had to be authorised by Njenje himself.

Disgraced former director for health and community services at Hibiscus Coast Municipality and convicted drug dealer, Sheryl Cwele, is now officially divorced from her husband, State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele. The Witness has established that the divorce, which follows hot on the heels of 50-year-old Sheryl's cocaine trafficking conviction in May this year, was granted by Judge Trevor Gorven in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on August 23.

According to the application papers, the minister had “lost all love and affection” for his wife and wished to be divorced from her. Court documents revealed the couple had not lived together as husband and wife since 2000 after getting married in 1985.

This contradicts Cwele’s denial at her bail hearing in February 2010 that she is estranged from her husband. In an apparent bid to allay rumours that they had split up at the time, the minister attended the bail application flanked by his bodyguards. He sat directly behind his wife in the dock, but she did not turn to look at him and he did not speak to her.

This wasn't the first time Sheryl had been found to be corrupt, if you can call being the head of an international drug ring corrupt. In April 2005 results of a forensic investigation into alleged fraud and corruption in the municipality, conducted by the Traditional and Local Government Affairs Department were released. Guess what, Cwele applied for her job after the closing date of November 8, 2002. She had no supporting documents, nothing in her application was certified and her application form wasn't even completed.

This shining beacon of South African politics has twice had her contract renewed, despite the fact that she didn’t meet the department’s competency profiles nor the minimum competency levels specified in the Municipal Finance Management Act regulations, required for officials at her level of seniority. She’s been found guilty of: Fraud, Incompetence, Nepotism, and now Drug trafficking


Convicted drug dealer Sheryl Cwele awoke on Friday morning to a new routine – one she will follow until she qualifies for parole, probably after serving at least half of her 20-year prison sentence.

Prison Life

Cwele, 50, joined other inmates in Westville Prison’s female section on Thursday to start her sentence for drug dealing.

A senior prison official, who asked to remain anonymous, said her day would begin at 5am and end at 3pm, when she would be locked up in her cell. An official told reporters that the former Hibiscus Coast municipality’s director of health services and ex-wife of State Security Minister, Siyabonga Cwele, would be treated like any other offender.

“She will be locked up like rapists, murderers and other common criminals. There will be no special treatment for her,” said the official. The official said that on arrival Cwele was officially booked in, which included having her fingerprints taken. After a body search, Cwele changed into prison uniform – a blue denim skirt and white shirt.

“She started at the prison hospital for a medical check-up, which includes checking that she does not have injuries or illnesses. I’m not sure how long she is going to be at the hospital,” said the official.

Once in the cells, Cwele will start the day with a shower with the other inmates before cleaning her cell. The prisoners then leave their cells to line up on the balcony to be counted before eating a breakfast of brown bread with jam and porridge and a cup of tea.

Mexico's Drug War

April 22, 2013, 1:44 pm

≫ Next: Crack Epidemic Hits West Africa

≪ Previous: Spy Boss's Wife Ran Cocaine Ring

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Mexico's Drug War: Balkanization Leads to Regional Challenges
This Security Weekly assesses the most significant cartel-related developments of the first quarter of 2013 and provides updated profiles of Mexico's powerful criminal cartels, as well as a forecast for the rest of this year. It's the executive summary of a more detailed report available to clients of our Mexico Security Monitor service.

"Mexico's Drug War: Balkanization Leads to Regional Challenges is republished with permission of Stratfor."

By Tristan Reed
Tactical Analyst

Balkanization of Cartels
Since the late 1980s demise of the Guadalajara cartel, which controlled drug trade routes into the United States through most of Mexico, Mexican cartels have followed a trend of fracturing into more geographically compact, regional crime networks. This trend, which we are referring to as "Balkanization," has continued for more than two decades and has impacted all of the major cartel groups in Mexico. Indeed the Sinaloa Federation lost significant assets when the organizations run by Beltran Leyva and Ignacio Coronel split away from it. Los Zetas, currently the other most powerful cartel in Mexico, was formed when it split off from the Gulf cartel in 2010. Still these two organizations have fought hard to resist the trend of fracturing and have been able to grow despite being affected by it. This led to the polarized dynamic observed in 2011 when these two dominant Mexican cartels effectively split Mexican organized crime in two, with one group composed of Los Zetas and its allies and the other composed of the Sinaloa Federation and its allies.

This trend toward polarization has since been reversed, however, as Balkanization has led to rising regional challenges to both organizations since 2012. Most notable among these is the split between the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Sinaloa Federation. The Sinaloa Federation continues to struggle with regional crime groups for control in western Chihuahua state, northern Sinaloa state, Jalisco state and northern Sonora state. Similarly, Los Zetas saw several regional challengers in 2012. Two regional groups saw sharp increases in their operational capabilities during 2012 and through the first quarter of 2013. These were the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Knights Templar.

The Beltran Leyva Organizationprovides another example of the regionalization of Mexican organized crime. It has become an umbrella of autonomous, and in some cases conflicting, groups. Many of the groups that emerged from it control specific geographic areas and fight among each other largely in isolation from the conflict between Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Federation. Many of these successor crime groups, such as the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos are currently fighting for their own geographic niches. As its name implies, the Independent Cartel of Acapulco mostly acts in Acapulco, while Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos mostly act in Morelos state.

The ongoing fragmentation of Mexican cartels is not likely to reverse, at least not in the next few years. Despite this, while Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Federation continue to face new rivals and suffer from internal splintering, their resources are not necessarily declining. Neither criminal organization faces implosion or a substantial decline as a transnational criminal organization as a result of rising regional challengers. Both Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Federation continue to extend their drug trafficking operations on a transnational level, increasing both their influence and profits. Still, they will continue to face the new reality, in which they are forced to work with -- or fight -- regional groups.

Los Zetas
In Hidalgo state, a former Zetas stronghold, the Knights Templar have made significant inroads, although violence has not risen to the level of that in the previously mentioned states. Also, the turf war within Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas that began when Los Zetas split from the Gulf cartel in 2010 continues.

In light of Ivan "El Taliban" Velazquez Caballero's dissent from Los Zetas and the death of former leader Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano Lazcano, Zetas leader Miguel "Z-40" Trevino Morales could face organizational integrity issues during 2013. Signs of such issues appeared in Cancun during the first quarter when some members of Los Zetas reportedly broke from the group and adopted the Gulf cartel name. Besides possible minor dissent, a seemingly new rival has emerged in Tabasco state to counter Los Zetas. A group called Pueblo Unido Contra la Delincuencia, Spanish for "People United Against Crime," carried out a series of executions in Tabasco state throughout the first quarter, but the group's origins and significance remain unclear. No indicators of substantial splintering among Los Zetas have emerged since the Velazquez split.

Sinaloa Federation
Regional organizations continued to challenge the Sinaloa Federation on its turf in western Chihuahua state, northern Sinaloa state and Jalisco state through the first quarter. Intercartel violence in mountainous western Chihuahua continues as the Sinaloa Federation fights La Linea for control of the region's smuggling routes and drug cultivation areas. Los Mazatlecos so far has maintained its control over northern Sinaloa cities, such as Los Mochis and Guasave. It also has continued violent incursions into southern areas of Sinaloa state, such as Mazatlan, Concordia and El Rosario with its ally Los Zetas. 

Gulf Cartel
At the beginning of 2012, Gulf cartel territory appeared likely to be absorbed by larger cartels -- essentially signaling the end of the Gulf cartel. Support from the Sinaloa Federation and the Knights Templar combined with fractures within Los Zetas allowed a Gulf cartel resurgence, leading to a renewed Gulf assault on Los Zetas in the northeastern states of Mexico. The resurgence ended with a series of notable arrests during the last quarter of 2012, such as that of former top leader Jorge Eduardo "El Coss" Costilla Sanchez. The arrests triggered additional Gulf cartel infighting, which peaked in March 2013.

The escalated infighting in the Gulf cartel, particularly in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state, highlighted the new state of the Gulf cartel: Instead of operating as a cohesive criminal network, the Gulf cartel now consists of factions linked by history and the Gulf label. The infighting began in 2010 after the death of former top Gulf cartel leader Antonio Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas Guillen. The death of Cardenas Guillen split the Gulf cartel into two main factions, Los Rojos and Los Metros. By the first quarter of 2013, infighting had broken out between Los Metros leaders, such as Mario "Pelon" Ramirez Trevino, David "Metro 4" Salgado and Miguel "El Gringo" Villarreal. This suggests the Gulf cartel is further fractured and no longer consists of just two opposing sides. The Gulf cartel may begin acting as a cohesive network during the second quarter after the escalated infighting in March, though this cannot be definitely predicted.

From March 10 to March 19, Reynosa became the focal point for Gulf cartel infighting as Ramirez Trevino escalated his conflict against Villarreal. Ramirez Trevino reportedly expelled Villarreal's faction and its allies from the Reynosa plaza and killed Salgado. This could mean Ramirez Trevino has consolidated control over other Gulf cartel factions. If true, this would represent a substantial shift in organized criminal operations in northeastern Tamaulipas state, where the Sinaloa Federation and the Knights Templar smuggle drugs, people and other illicit commodities through the border towns of Reynosa and Matamoros while Los Zetas maintain a constant interest in fighting for control of the stated cities.

As mentioned during the last annual update, Gulf cartel factions are increasingly reliant on Sinaloa Federation and Knights Templar support to defend the remaining Gulf cartel territory in Tamaulipas state from Los Zetas. This certainly remains true after the first quarter, although the recent shift from Gulf cartel infighting may signal a shift in inter cartel dynamics. Since the Gulf cartel in reality consists of separate factions, there is likely a separate relationship between each Gulf cartel faction and the larger criminal organizations reportedly in alignment with them. With Ramirez Trevino now in charge of Reynosa, a city valued by both the Sinaloa Federation and the Knights Templar, his existing relationship with the two organizations will likely influence their strategies for maintaining their interests in Gulf cartel-controlled areas. Additionally, it is not yet clear whether Ramirez Trevino suffered any substantial losses during the March fighting in Reynosa. If he did lose some capabilities fighting Los Zetas in Tamaulipas state, or if he has challenged a faction loyal to either the Sinaloa Federation or the Knights Templar, either organization would likely have to use its own gunmen for defending Gulf cartel-controlled areas or mounting their own incursions into Zetas territory, particularly Nuevo Laredo.

Intercartel violence in the Gulf cartel-controlled city of Reynosa will likely diminish compared to the first quarter of 2013 if Ramirez Trevino has indeed won. This reduction in violence will continue only as long as Ramirez Trevino is able to hold his control over Reynosa. Influence from external organizations, such as Los Zetas, the Sinaloa Federation and the Knights Templar, could once again spark violence if Ramirez Trevino's efforts have harmed their trafficking operations through Reynosa or presented a new opportunity to seize control. What, if any, Gulf cartel infighting is ongoing is difficult to gauge.

Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion
The severing of the relationship between the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Sinaloa Federation came to the forefront of conflicts in the Pacific states of Michoacan and Jalisco during the first quarter of 2013. The Sinaloa Federation relied on its alliance with the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion in defending the critical location of Guadalajara from Los Zetas and used the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion as an assault force into Los Zetas strongholds, such as Veracruz state.

Although evidence of the rift between the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Sinaloa Federation began to appear in open-source reporting during the last half of 2012, the conflict between the two organizations only became clear when the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion went on the offensive in Jalisco state by attacking Sinaloa Federation allies Los Coroneles, the Knights Templar and the Gulf cartel. 

With a now-fully independent Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the polarization of warring cartels in Mexico has effectively ended. In addition to the existing conflicts between the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas, the Sinaloa Federation must now focus on reclaiming an operational hold over Jalisco state from the now-rival Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The second quarter will continue to see a conflict between the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion and Sinaloa Federation-aligned groups in Jalisco state as well as neighboring states like Michoacan.

Knights Templar
The Knights Templar experienced intensified conflict during the first quarter from their principal rival, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. In an effort to combat the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Knights Templar have allied with other Sinaloa Federation-aligned groups, the Gulf cartel and Los Coroneles, referring to themselves as "Los Aliados" to fight the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion within Jalisco. Violence as a result of this alliance against the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion has been most notable in the Guadalajara metropolitan area as well as towns lying on highways 15 and 90, which connect to Guadalajara.

In addition to the Knights Templar offensive into Jalisco state, the group is currently defending its stronghold of Michoacan state. The Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion also has conducted violent assaults against the Knights Templar in Michoacan, particularly on routes leading from Jalisco state toward Apatzingan, Michoacan state. This assault has increased intercartel violence along the border of the two states as part of a tit-for-tat dynamic. 

Citizens of Buenavista Tomatlan, Michoacan state, a municipality lying amid territory contested by the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Knights Templar, have recently set up a community police force to counter Knights Templar operations in the municipality. As in some other areas of Mexico, this community police force is a volunteer force that assumed law enforcement responsibilities independent of the Mexican government. The community police, while established to thwart the Knights Templar, have created tension between the communities of Buenavista Tomatlan and the government. On March 8, the Mexican military detained approximately 34 members of the community police force that had been created in February in Buenavista Tomatlan.

The Buenavista Tomatlan arrests occurred after the community police took over the municipal police station March 4 and detained the municipal police chief, who the Mexican military later freed. Notably, the Mexican government claimed at least 30 of the detained community police belonged to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. If true, this suggests it has made territorial gains to the point of infiltrating the community police. However, there has been no confirmation on whether the accusations are true. Regardless, the community police force of Buenavista Tomatlan has placed its focus on stopping Knights Templar operations in the area, a focus that could only benefit the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion's war with its rivals.

Crack Epidemic Hits West Africa

April 22, 2013, 1:45 pm

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Local consumption of crack or‘Pedra’ as it is called has rocketed in recent years since the country became a major hub for coke on its way heading to Europe from S. America, and crack is highly addictive. Since then thousands of people in Bissau's slums like Reno have become crack addicts. Prostitution has increased substantially consequently driving a new HIV/AIDS epidemic.   
  
The reason people here prefer pedra is that it is more powerful than cocaine and much much cheaper. You can get one rock of pedra for around 250 CFA francs ($0.40) and a few rocks can last a couple of days.  A gram of cocaine, however, costs between 6,000 CFA francs (US $15) and 12,000 CFA francs ($30) depending on your source and it is only enough for a night or two. Nowadays pedra can be found almost anywhere in the country, even in remote villages, but the most notorious area for it is called Reno [in Bissau]. It’s a tough neighbourhood where even police are afraid to go. Reno was bad before but in the last couple of years it has really gotten out of control.

Guinea-Bissau’s only drug-addiction clinic lies on a back road in the quiet village about an hour outside Bissau.  José Belenta arrived at Quinhámel mental-health centre with his wrists and ankles bound. Then addicted to crack, the former carpenter is now clean and has become a voluntary worker at the clinic. Run by an evangelical pastor with no formal medical training, it combines drug rehab with a safe environment for the mentally ill: Belenta has to break off from our conversation a number of times to administer sedatives to patients or to calm his charges. 

“It started in 2009,” he says. “Some of my friends had big money, and I’d travel up and down helping them to transport the drugs.” Belenta says he was paying around 70 ¢ for a hit. He estimates 20% to 30% of the young people in Bissau are now using crack. A World Health Organization representative in Bissau, who asks not to be identified, concurs with that rough assessment.  But over the past couple of years more crack addicts have been turning up, he said. Families often turn addicted relatives who steal from them over to the police, who bring them to the centre. But the facility is not able to offer proper accommodation to its patients. Many are chained outside to prevent them from wandering off. The centre also lacks trained staff, and relies mainly on religious instruction as a substitute for treatment. "We work in the spiritual area to know God's word," Mr Té said. "God judges the person who does bad - that's what we teach them." 

“We have no proof,” he says, “but if you see the number of people with mental illness now, it figures that there is an increase in drug use.”

In Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the smallest, with a population of just 1.6 million, the drug now permeates the entire nation, from the military and political elites, who facilitate its passage, to the poorest and most vulnerable, who are developing a rising addiction.

Despite obvious signs of the trade — such as $100,000 cars in Bissau’s streets and smugglers’ abandoned Gulfstream jet at the airport — the drug business thrives on a wilful silence. Recently Public television in the Cape Verde Islands says U.S. authorities operating at sea have arrested a former navy chief of the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau who is suspected of being a kingpin in the international drug trade. Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana reported late Thursday that Rear Adm. Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchutoand four other Guinea-Bissau nationals were apprehended aboard a yacht in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean in an undercover sting operation.

Bubo Clipped In Sting

Malam is a 35-year-old Bissau-Guinean drug dealer and international trafficker. He tells me he has full impunity because he is related to a former President. “The police are worthless,” says Malam, who refuses to use his full name. “They’re in everyone’s pocket.” He dips into his own supply on occasion and counts himself lucky. The younger and poorer in Guinea-Bissau use cocaine’s cheaper and more-addictive derivative, crack. As night falls in the capital, young people can be seen gathering in groups under mango trees or in sleepy side streets to smoke rocks of crack cocaine for less than a dollar a hit. “No police approach them,” says Peter Correia, a government health care worker, in his small office piled high with boxes of condoms. “They can’t because of the condition of these people — they are becoming dangerous.”

Now the epicentre of an expanding West African cocaine trade, Guinea-Bissau is confronting an entirely new problem that threatens disaster for its fragile health, law enforcement and justice systems - a burgeoning population of home-grown crack addicts. Unheard of until recently in this tiny former Portuguese colony, use of crack cocaine is a spillover effect of thetransnational cocaine trade.During the past few years, traffickers have increasingly been using Guinea-Bissau as a transit point to move drugs from South America into Europe. Large cocaine shipments arrive here to be broken down into smaller quantities before being smuggled onwards. But some of the drug remains in the country, where it is refined into cheap crack cocaine that feeds a growing number of addictions. 

Although the vast majority of cocaine arriving in the country ends up on the streets of European cities, the use of crack cocaine in poor areas of the capital city, Bissau is prevalent  In one neighbourhood a local drug lord conspires with police and some residents to hide the problem - indicating one reason that crack use has rarely been exposed to the public. In a dusty cul-de-sac at the end of a labyrinthine network of rutted dirt roads, a group of young men stood lounging in the mid-afternoon sun. One of them entered the dingy, walled-in porch of a ramshackle house. In his hand he held a pebble-sized rock of crack cocaine. The addict fashioned a pipe out of a broken section of car antenna and a piece of tinfoil. He began to smoke with single-minded determination, ignoring the click of the camera and questions being asked through a translator. His reverie was broken suddenly by a large man wearing a gold chain who entered the veranda. 

The man - later identified as a dealer - became irate because he suspected that drug use was being documented by agents for Interpol, the international police agency, which is active in the country. As the drug dealer continued his tirade, residents gathered around, forming a group of about 70 people. Many shouted in Creole and attempted to grab photography and recording equipment. About 20 minutes later, the scene calmed with the arrival of a pick-up lorry filled with armed police officers. At the police station, the drug dealer and police officers colluded to make sure evidence of drug use was erased. Given their poor training and meagre pay, it is perhaps not surprising that members of the security forces and judiciary have been corrupted by drug money. 

The United Nations estimates that 60 -250 tons of cocaine transits West Africa each year. That's a street value of between $120 - $500 billion. Much of it passes through Guinea-Bissau, which the United Nations ranks as the third-least developed country in the world. "I don't think we can avoid talking of corruption, of permeability, of both of the law enforcement apparatus and of the judicial system," said Antonio Mazzitelli, the West Africa representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Drug cartels looking for a base of operations found a welcoming environment in Guinea-Bissau, where the security and justice sectors are notoriously corrupt and ineffective. "Even if somebody is arrested he has a very good likelihood of escaping prosecution, through corruption or [some other] break in the prosecutorial chain," Mr Mazzitelli said. 

Given their fragile state, the police and justice systems are ill-equipped to deal with the rise of crime that will inevitably follow an epidemic of crack use, as it has in cities throughout the world. The cocaine trade is relatively new to Guinea-Bissau, arriving around 2004, according to UNODC. So far, the country has been spared the bloodshed that plagues such countries as Colombia or Mexico, where drug cartels are powerful. But the violence may be starting already. Ms Pires, the justice minister, said Guinea-Bissau recently had its first drug-related homicide. 

While rival gangs battle over profits from the drug trade, thefts are likely to become common as a growing number of crack addicts in poor areas struggle to feed their addictions. "You don't sleep, you don't eat, you don't have nice clothes, you don't have shoes. All you want is to steal something and smoke," said one recovering crack addict who requested anonymity. An epidemic of drug use would also overwhelm the country's crumbling health system. It covers only 40 per cent of the population, according to the World Health Organization, and offers no drug treatment programmes. 

Guinea-Bissau's domestic drug-abuse problem is still in its early stages, and is small enough that government officials deny its existence. But some predict that West Africa could soon face a crack epidemic similar to those that have ravaged the streets in western cities. In developed countries, hotly contested theories abound about how best to fight and treat drug abuse.But the debate has hardly penetrated West African countries, many of which are struggling to recover from war, as well as poverty and corruption. Mr Mazzitelli of the UNODC said a crack epidemic will only add to the region's woes. "If the issue is not addressed in the short term - in the mid-run certainly - together with its already important health problems, they will have to face the problems of drug dependency and of the violence that drug dependency generates."

Rehab Africa

In Sierra Leone harder drugs - cocaine and, to a lesser extent, heroin - have become increasingly available, authorities and health practitioners say. They blame West Africa's growing role as a transit route for the global narcotics trade. Cocaine comes from Latin America and heroin from South-east Asia, officials explained, and through such countries as Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The drugs then continue on to Europe and North America.

In one high-profile case in 2008, for example, Sierra Leone's Minister of Transport and Aviation was dismissed for his alleged involvement in the landing of an air plane carrying 700 kilograms of cocaine. And in December 2011, police seized a shipment of cocaine reportedly en route fromEcuador.

As smuggling activity has increased, there's been a spillover effect. According to the United Nations' 2012 World Drug Report, "increasing trafficking of cocaine through the coastal countries of West Africa is leading to an increase in cocaine use… with cocaine use possibly emerging alongside heroin use as a major problem".

City Of Rest Rehab Centre

Dr Edward Nahim, an adviser to the Sierra Leone National Drug Enforcement Agency, explained that it is common for drug handlers to be paid with portions of the product they're moving, which is contributing to a growing proliferation of those narcotics in Sierra Leone.

"These international traffickers don't work with money; that is the problem," Nahim said. "They pay people with the drugs, and that is how these drugs stay behind."

The only certified psychiatrist in the country, Nahim estimated that 80 percent of the patients he sees are suffering from "drug-induced psychotic disorders". He noted that for now, the majority of those cases stem from heavy abuse of alcohol and high-grade marijuana, but that he is also observing an increase in the use of cocaine and heroin.

Ibrahim Samura, assistant superintendent for Sierra Leone's national police force, also said that drug abuse is on the rise. He described the situation as "alarming," and linked it to "an increase in gangsterism".

Pastor Morie Ngobeh

"They use [drugs] more than is necessary, and it spurs them to behave abnormally and do things they wouldn't do in their right senses," he said. "They kill, they rape, they smoke marijuana, they carry weapons and do criminal activities."

Samura called attention to legislation passed in 2009 that created stiffer penalties for drug trafficking. In March 2010, the UN secretary-general's representative to Sierra Leone praised such efforts, but argued that to effectively tackle Sierra Leone's drug problem, the country's high unemployment rate for young people must first be addressed. Some seventy percent of youth were unemployed or underemployed in 2010, according to government statistics.

Hidden in a congested area of down town Freetown is the so-called "Lumley Street Cartel Ground". Down a narrow entrance, barely visible amid a throng of market stalls, the collection of shacks is a hub for the distribution and use of drugs in the capital city.

Rehab Bissau

Sitting on a chair off to one side of the unadorned space was an old woman - reportedly the wife of a police officer - with a long scar running down one side of her face. She refused to speak to journalists, but directed two of her dealers to act as escorts. For the next 30 minutes, the men moved though a labyrinthine network of alleys and side streets, to join a small group of youths who were willing to talk about how drugs were affecting their lives and communities. Alimu Kamara said that everything he has goes to drugs. "I won't come out of there [drug dens] with one penny," the 24-year-old said. "All I do is smoke smoke smoke da brown-brown [heroin]."

Kamara and two childhood friends shared tattoos marking them as members of a gang called "Cens Coast Hood", which they said distributed drugs across the country. The young men said they didn't know where the relatively recent influxes of cocaine or heroin were coming from. "By plane, by boat - I don't know," one shrugged. Their only concern was the immediate need to get high, a priority they said was common among street-level dealers.

Rehab Freetown

"I gotta do drugs to move around, to wake me up," Kamara complained. "When I don't have something, it's hopeless."

Asked if there was anything he would like to say on behalf of young people struggling with drugs, Kamara politely declined to answer. "I don't feel like I can," he explained. "I want to change myself first. Then I can say something."

Though few options exist, there are places in Sierra Leone where individuals struggling with drugs can get help.

One is Nahim's clinic in Freetown, though the psychiatrist noted that treating severe cases remained difficult. He explained that in a poor country such as Sierra Leone, medicines used to treat addiction, such as methadone, are prohibitively expensive. Nahim said he therefore employed the "cold turkey method", despite it often entailing painful withdrawal symptoms. "We restrain you physically," he said. "Then we give you very strong tranquillising drugs that will keep you asleep during that period, maybe for one or two days."

Another option is "City of Rest", the only dedicated mental health facility in Sierra Leone. There, Pastor Morie Ngobeh has helped men and women struggling with addiction and other disorders since 1985. He said that 25 of 40 beds provided for in-patient care were currently occupied by people with problems related to drugs and alcohol.


The City of Rest Rehabilitation Centre at Fort Street in Freetown offers residential care for 40 people struggling with addiction problems and or mental illness. The centre seeks to bring spiritual, physical, and psychosocial/mental healing and restoration to lives that have been severely affected by substance abuse and or mental illness.  The City of rest which is the only rehabilitation centre for people with substance abuse disorders in Sierra Leone is partly supported by local charges and individuals. Some 30 people trying to beat addiction to drugs like cocaine, are currently on a waiting list for ‘City of Rest.

"In the 1980s, drug problems were very rare," Ngobeh said. "Now, all kinds of drugs are in this country."

Nahim and Ngobeh each have decades of experience working with addiction. In separate interviews, they both cited a lack of options for meaningful work as a primary factor driving young people to drugs.

"They are in the ghettos all day long, and for hours at night as well," Nahim said. "And that's on a regular, daily basis." He argued that to begin to solve the country's drug problem, it is this group of especially vulnerable people that must be made a priority.

Ngobeh echoed Nahim's words. "When these young people are frustrated or depressed, they easily go to drugs," he said. "They want to forget their problems. But they don't forget… and that's how most of them become addicted." 

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Guyana Connection

April 23, 2013, 3:07 pm

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Ricardo ‘Fatman’ Rodrigues

The recent seizure of liquid cocaine bound for Africa shows that Guyana continues to be an important transit country for cocaine destined for the United States, Canada, the Caribbean,Europe and West Africa. Cocaine originating in Colombia is smuggled to Venezuela and onward to Guyana by sea (fishing vessels, bulk cargo vessels and tug vessels) or air. Because porous borders, smuggling is also conducted by land from Brazil and Suriname into Guyana. Once cocaine arrives in Guyana, it is often concealed in legitimate commodities and smuggled via commercial maritime vessels, air shipments, human couriers, or the postal services.

Drug trafficking organizations based in Guyana are beginning to use neighbouring Suriname as a major distribution hub. The cocaine is smuggled into Guyana and then transported to Suriname for safekeeping and distribution. Approximately 352kg of cocaine was seized in 2011. As a result  of these seizures,Guyanese authorities have case spending prosecution against 16 mid-level and senior drug traffickers. As a matter of policy, the Government of Guyana does not encourage or facilitate the illicit production or distribution of narcotics .News media, however, report on allegations of corruption; some reports have implicated police personally in stealing drugs from seizures, while others point to high government officials who are not investigated and thus go unpunished.

Guyana Players
Ricardo ‘Fatman’ Rodrigues, was executed by a five-man squad in broad daylight on a quiet Monday afternoon on 15th October in Georgetown. He had been released on bail following his arrest over the discovery of an arms cache in the Rupununi that contained ten automatic and assault rifles, hand grenades, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other items. Rodrigues is a close associate of Guyanese Shaheed 'Roger' Khan who has been jailed in the United States for cocaine trafficking. 

Shaheed 'Roger' Khan

Shaheed 'Roger' Khan is a Guyanese criminal who was active in drugs trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling. He trafficked cocaine from Colombia into the United States and used construction and forestry businesses to launder money. Khan was considered to be Guyana's most powerful drug lord.  In US embassy cables published by Wikileaks Khan's control over Guyana is compared with Pablo Escobar's erstwhile control over Colombia.
Khan used to surround himself with a coterie of former police tactical squad members for security. According to cables published by Wikileaks Khan used to pay his low-level security personnel USD 1,600 per month—at least eight times what they previously earned with the police force.

In 1993 Khan was arrested in the Burlington, Vermont for receiving and possessing firearms while being a convicted felon (he was on probation for theft committed in 1992 in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. He would be tried for possession of illegal firearms and ammunition but fled to Guyana when he was on bail. On 15 June 2006 Khan was arrested in Paramaribo with three of his bodyguards in a sting operation that Surinamese police said netted more than 200 kilograms of cocaine - the biggest cocaine haul in Suriname of that year.  Instead of being deported to Guyana then minister of Justice of Suriname Chan Santokhi ordered that Khan would be flown to Trinidad. This decision received a lot of protest from president Dési Bouterse's party, which then formed the biggest opposition party in the parliament of Suriname. Upon the arrival at the airport of Trinidad Khan was handed over to immigration authorities who then handed him over to US officials. Less than 24 hours after being expelled from Suriname, Khan was arraigned at the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York on 30 June 2006 on a charge of “conspiring to import cocaine” and was ordered to be detained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.

In October 2009 Khan was sentenced in a courtroom in Brooklyn, New York to 40 years imprisonment for trafficking large amounts of cocaine in the United States of America, witness tampering and illegal firearm possession.

Lawyer Robert Simels

According to US embassy cables Khan had ties with the FARC. Khan exchanged the arms he smuggled into Guyana from Suriname, French Guyana, and possibly France with the FARC for cocaine. According to the cables there are strong indications that Khan was deeply involved in a huge shipment of weapons to FARC in Colombia in December 2005.

Khan's lawyer in his case was Robert Simels. Simels is former lawyer of convicted drug trafficker Kenneth McGriff and American mobster Henry Hill, who received international fame because of the 1990 American crime movie Goodfellas which portrays his rise and fall. On 4 December, 2009, Khan's lawyer was sentenced to 14 years in prison for, after consulting with Khan in jail, instructing a hit-man to kill the star witness in Khan's case. However, the hit-man turned out to be a government informant who secretly recorded the conversations with Simels. 

Jean Le Blanc

The link between narco-trafficking and gun-running is clear. It is evident also, that drugs and guns have been contributing to murders during the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s 20-year administration. The Guyana Police Force recorded 114 murders so far in 2012. Nine of these were ‘executions’ which might have been related to the narcotics trade. Armed robberies, which increased by 15 per cent to 854 – a rate of nearly three per day – are partly the result of more fire power on the street which accompanies drug-running. Jean Le Blanc, a Canadian from Montreal with mob ties, who was shot at the same time as Rodrigues, died mysteriously in hospital on 26th October. Marlon ‘Trini” Osbourne, Rodrigues’s personal bodyguard, was executed on 31st October in broad daylight in the quiet ward of Queenstown, Georgetown by a squad of gunmen.

The United States is seeking Barry Dataram for cocaine smuggling offences, but has been unable to secure his provisional arrest because the extradition treaty between Guyana and the US contains a proviso which allows the US to extradite to third countries. Dataram came up on the radar after the kidnapping of his wife, Sheleza, and their three-year-old daughter in December 2007 by two Venezuelans, one of whom was later shot dead in a confrontation with the police. Dataram was then arrested and had been detained by police beyond the 72 hours that the law allows a person to be held in custody before being charged. His lawyers subsequently approached the court with a habeas corpus writ but police asked for an extension to conclude their investigation into the kidnapping, which they said was drug-related.

Barry Dataram

They ought to explain why the Guyana Government has been “engaged in discussion” with the US administration about the establishment of a United States Drug Enforcement Agency Office in Guyana for over 12 years without reaching agreement while Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad opened DEA offices!

Marlon ‘Trini” Osbourne

The country’s two existing counter-narcotics agencies “ Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit and Police Narcotics Branch – have never been provided with the surveillance aircraft, river and coastal patrol boats, all-terrain vehicles and trained personnel needed to secure the country’s main international transit points, coasts and borders. They seem incapable of identifying, much less investigating, the major drug cartels that have the ability to keep the trade going.

Vic Puran and Barry

The same day as Ricardo ‘Fatman’ Rodrigues was killed high profile lawyer  Vic Puran died in a mysterious accident.  His car was found early the next morning. He had apparently lost control of the car and it ran into the trench. Vic had represented several defendants charged with cocaine trafficking including Dataram, who is currently missing.

A ex police commissioner was also mentioned in a confidential US embassy report by the DEA . Greene’s name has appeared repeatedly in reports from various USG agencies  “U.S. law enforcement has reliable reports from multiple sources that Henry Greene has benefited from, and continues to benefit from, the proceeds of drug trafficking.”
A month before Vic's ill fated car accident ex police chief Green also had a car accident which turned out to be fatal.

Big Man Henry Greene

 In 2006 the Agriculture Minister Satyadeo Sawh was assassined in a home invasion robbery, according to a leaked US embassy report Sawh was said to be close with a certain Salim Azeez, a suspected money launderer and alien smuggler. Azeez financed a fish farm, Newline Aqua Farm, which appears to be a money laundering operation. Azeez was previously arrested with several Guyanese and U.S. passports but later was acquitted of wrongdoing. 

The cartels continue landing foreign aircraft and even constructing illegal airstrips that can accommodate foreign cocaine cargo planes. The Guyanese public has had to learn, quite by chance, every now and then over the past 20 years, of illegal flights of strange foreign aircraft; of low-flying aircraft which dropped 20 cartons of cocaine at Loo Lands, on the Demerara River, in June 1993.

The burnt-out aircraft ‘discovered’ on the airstrip at Bartica in December 1998; of another burnt-out aircraft ‘discovered’ at Mabura Hill in July 2000; of the abandoned aircraft at Kwapau airstrip in March 2005 and of the discovery of a burn-out aeroplane on an illegal airstrip at Wanatoba, 130 km upriver from Orealla on the Corentyne River, in December 2007.

Europe's Appetite for Cocaine Endangering Africa

April 26, 2013, 3:33 am

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A Boeing aircraft from Venezuela landed on an improvised landing strip in Mali’s Gao region, with ten tones of cocaine on board. News reports about aircraft in West Africa filled up with cocaine are becoming more and more frequent. The drugs cartels in Latin America have discovered that they can reach the European market via Africa. Organised crime is such a rewarding industry in Europe because ordinary Europeans spend an ever-burgeoning amount of their spare time and money snorting coke through €50 notes.

In case you think this is a wild exaggeration, take note of an article published by the London Sunday Telegraph. So much cocaine is being used in London that traces of the white powdered narcotic can be detected in the River Thames. Citing scientific research that it had commissioned, it said an estimated 2kg of cocaine, or 80 000 lines, spill into the river every day after passing through users’ bodies and sewage treatment plants.

It extrapolated that 150 000 lines of the illegal drug are snorted in the British capital every single day, or 15 times higher than the official figure given by the Home Office. Europeans belong to the largest consumers of illicit drugs, absorbing about one fifth of the global heroin, cocaine and cannabis supply, as well as one third of ecstasy production (UNODC World Drug report, 2008). 

The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) in Oslo and the Mario Negri Institute in Milan led a research initiative, directly collaborating with 11 European research institutes. Raw sewage samples from 19 large European cities were collected by the participants of the study during a single week in March 2011 and analyzed for the urinary biomarkers of cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy, methamphetamine and cannabis. The total amount of the drugs used by inhabitants of each of the 19 cities was measured and then the results were adjusted for population size.

The data show distinct temporal and spatial patterns in drug use across Europe. Cocaine use was higher in Western and Central Europe and lower in Northern and Eastern Europe. High per capita ecstasy loads were measured in Dutch cities, as well as in Antwerp and London. In general, cocaine and ecstasy loads were significantly elevated during the weekend compared to weekdays. Per capita loads of methamphetamine were highest in Helsinki, Turku, Oslo and Budweis, while per capita loads of cannabis were similar throughout Europe.

MPs Double Standard

A recent scandal broke out among Italian parliamentarians, in a clever yet classic sting operation staged by the producers of Le Iene, a popular prime time TV show, a secret drug test taken by Italian parliamentarians revealed that almost one out of three Italian MPs appeared to have taken illegal drugs in the previous 36 hours. More precisely, the secret drug test showed that 16 out of 50 politicians had allegedly tested positive for cocaine use.The cult TV show Le Iene, sent a reporter and camera crew, purporting to represent Fox TV, to the Italian Parliament at asking MPs for their views on the 2007 budget draft. Yet unknown to the politicians posing for the camera, the make-up artist dabbing the sweat from their brows during their ‘interview’ was in reality collecting their perspiration in order to test it for the presence of illegal substances. 

The tests were conducted with a device called Drugswipe, used by German and Swiss police in random traffic checks, it can test for drug use within the last 36 hours in as little as five minutes Former president of the lower house Pierferdinando Casini stated, ‘The value of this experiment is precisely zero.’ In response to concerns about the test’s reliability, the chief producer of Le Iene, Davide Parenti, had argued that the Drugswipe ‘is 100 % accurate. Amid parliamentary uproar over the shocking results of the secret drug test conducted by Le Iene,The Privacy Authority blocked the transmission of the segment, contending that the data was collected in a covert and illegal manner, thereby invading the MPs’ privacy.

Instead, the first episode of the autumn series broadcast a similar segment in which the Drugswipe test was unknowingly used on the patrons of a nightclub. Results showed that 20 out of the 40 club-goers interviewed had tested positive for cocaine. However, in this case the Italian Privacy Authority did not censor the segment.

Italian parliament Palace Flying High

But wouldn't an identical sting on the Italian public also be a violation of an individual’s privacy? Is this a double standard applicable only to Italian MPs who consider themselves above the law, yet the citizenry not? Is this so-called ‘privacy privilege’ among MPs valid only for those who passed the‘zero tolerance’ drug law last February, abolishing the distinction between hard and soft drugs and making possession as well as dealing a criminal offence?

Huge Money At Stake

Between 1998 and 2009 global production of opium rose almost 80% … "Just a decade ago, the North American market for cocaine was four times larger than that of Europe, but now we are witnessing a complete rebalancing. Today the estimated value of the European cocaine market ($65-billion) is almost equivalent to that of the North American market ($70-billion), it has simply experienced a geographical shift in supply and demand. 

Drug trafficking, the critical link between supply and demand, is fuelling a global criminal enterprise valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars that poses a growing challenge to stability and security. Drug traffickers and cartels are forming transnational networks, sourcing drugs on one continent, trafficking them across another and marketing them in a third. 

In some countries and regions the value of the illicit drug trade far exceeds the size of the legitimate economy. Given the enormous amounts of money controlled by drug traffickers, they have the capacity to corrupt officials. In recent years we have seen several such cases in which ministers and heads of national law enforcement agencies have been implicated in drug-related corruption. We are also witnessing more and more acts of violence, conflicts and terrorist activities fuelled by drug trafficking and organised crime.

The transporting of narcotics via the west coast of Africa has proven to be the most secure way of getting drugs to customers in Europe. The so-called Atlantic route (South America – Portugal – Spain) is becoming steadily more difficult, so the drugs cartels have turned their attention to West Africa, which has a practically unguarded coastline and impoverished, weak and easy-to-bribe governments.

Waterbed Effect
“The drugs trade, which has Europe as its primary destination, now chooses the African route. Especially the poor, open-to-bribery countries, but also the larger and more stable parts of Africa such as Nigeria and South Africa”, says Wil Pantsers, Director of the Mexican Studies Centre at the University of Groningen.

Every time a country somewhere in the world proudly presents figures showing the progress of the war against drugs trafficking, figures in another part of the world give precisely the opposite impression. The golden rule of supply and demand that defines the marketplace certainly applies to the drugs trade.

Weak States
Forty tonnes (27 percent) of the cocaine consumed in Europe have passed through various West African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia,Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,Cape Verde,Senegal, Mali or Mauritania. The international airports on the other side of the continent serve as through-routes for heroin that is imported from Asia and sold on the streets of Amsterdam or London. That’s according to the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) of the United Nations.

The rapid growth is not only the consequence of the creativity and vast experience of the Latin American drugs cartels. The weakness of the states with which they do business, and the extreme poverty, makes this region an ideal place for their illegal practices.

Lack of Everything
Guinea-Bissau is a good example of an extremely violent state, where the drugs trade is flourishing at the highest levels of the land. Tom Blickman, from the Transnational Institute of Policy Studies in Amsterdam, points out the extreme weakness of the government: “In Guinea-Bissau there’s no means of keeping drugs trafficking under control. The police don’t have any cars. They don’t have any radios. They don’t have anything.”

Guinea-Bissau Central Jail

In the last few years, the Mexican drugs cartels have conquered the international market. 90% of the drugs in the United States come into the country via Mexico. The Mexican drugs cartels, along with that of Colombia, together form an enormous criminal force that reaches far beyond the borders, even across oceans.

Corruption
In Mexico, neither the huge army nor the police are in any position to bring an end to the drugs gangs. Since 2008, drug-related violence has so far cost the lives of more than sixty thousand dead and fifteen thousand missing. The drugs trade is even infiltrated by individuals at the highest levels of the police and politics.

Mexico is an important through-route to the north from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, but at the same time the quantity of marijuana and poppies has increased enormously. What particularly strikes researchers is the spectacular growth in the production of synthetic drugs.

Crossroads
Mexico has developed into the crossroads for drug trafficking, and that is feeding destabilization in the region, says Luis Astorga from the Independent National University of Mexico. “This position that Central America has taken up in the cocaine route, is becoming increasingly important. Every success by Colombia or Mexico in the fight against drugs has immediate negative consequences in the Caribbean and Central America, where the governments are weaker.”

The fight against worldwide drugs trafficking is a major challenge for the international community, maybe even greater than the fight against international terrorism. Drugs’ trafficking brings democracies to their knees, and destabilizes not only countries, but whole regions.

Pura Calma Rehab Africa Project

April 29, 2013, 3:10 pm

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Get Involved, Make A Difference
West Africa has only recently experienced an increase in the domestic consumption of narcotics among its populations. However according to UN statistics 37,000 people in Africa die annually from diseases associated with the consumption of illegal drugs. The UN estimates there are 28 million drug users in Africa, the figure for the United States and Canada is 32 million.

According to estimates forwarded by the United Nations, of the 35 tonnes of cocaine estimated to have reached West Africa in 2009, only 21 tonnes continued on to Europe, meaning the remainder was probably sold and consumed locally in Africa. There are an estimated 1.5 million of coke users in West Africa. The UN agency said as much as 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of heroin have been consumed in West Africa in 2011 so far. More African youths are becoming addicted to hard drugs, while West Africa gradually transforms from a drug transportation region, to a drug consuming region to a drug producing one. 

Limited Rehab Centres In Africa
There are less than five drug rehabilitation centres in the whole of West Africa. Guinea-Bissau’s only drug-addiction clinic, Quinhámel mental-health centre. The centre is trying to cope with an explosion of crack addiction with no funds, no drugs and no trained staff. Thousands of people in Bissau's slums like Reno have become crack addicts. Prostitution has increased substantially consequently driving a new HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

When the population of a state is weakened or compromised by drug abuse, it has the potential of rendering the population insecure as “dependency, distress, poverty and crime sets in. If this trend continues unabated it ultimately leads to the disintegration and disruption of family and society relations and a country dependent on narco-trafficking causes the unravelling of its own population and the attached value system required for its survival and cohesion.

Sierra Leone One Psychiatrist For Six Million People
The only certified psychiatrist in Sierra Leone, Dr Nahim estimated that 80 percent of the patients he sees are suffering from "drug-induced psychotic disorders". 

As Dr Nahim's explains "In a poor country like Sierra Leone, medicines used to treat addiction, such as methadone, are expensive, he therefore employs the "cold turkey method", despite it often entailing painful withdrawal symptoms. "We restrain you physically," he said. "Then we give you very strong tranquillising drugs that will keep you asleep during that period, maybe for one or two days." This is drug rehab in West Africa.

The City of Rest Rehabilitation Centre at Fort Street in Freetown offers residential care for 40 people struggling with addiction problems and or mental illness. The centre seeks to bring spiritual, physical, and psychosocial/mental healing and restoration to lives that have been severely affected by substance abuse and or mental illness.  The City of rest which is the only rehabilitation centre for people with substance abuse disorders in Sierra Leone is partly supported by local charges and individuals.  People trying to beat addiction to drugs, are forced to go on a long waiting list to get a place in the City of Rest. West Africa is now the epicentre of an expanding cocaine trade, confronting an entirely new problem that threatens disaster for its fragile health, law enforcement and justice systems - a growing legion of home-grown addicts.

Warning Signals 
Intermediaries along West African smuggling routes are often paid in product. To turn expensive high-grade cocaine into a profit-making drug in one of the world's poorest regions, cartels are transforming the white powder into crack cocaine. In some cities, a dose of rock sells for as little as $0.20.

"The warning signals are there that this really is a problem that could run amok in years ahead if comparable resources aren't devoted to the human consumption side," said Alan Doss, a senior adviser at the Geneva-based Kofi Annan Foundation.

We only have to examine the experience of the American crack epidemic of 1984 to 1990 to get an idea of what the future may hold for West Africa. In 1985, cocaine-related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300. By 1986 it had rocketed up 210 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. Between 1984 and 1987, cocaine incidents increased to 94,000. In addition, late 1984 also saw an increase in fetal death rates and low birth-weight babies to mothers who were using crack cocaine. The crack epidemic is correlated with a sharp increase in crime on an unprecedented scale, especially violent crime. 

Between 1984 and 1994, the homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubled, and the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased nearly as much. During this period, the black community also experienced an increase in fetal death rates, low birth-weight babies, weapons arrests, and the number of children in foster care.

Some contributors and readers of African Narco News are interested in establishing a Holistic Drug Rehab centre based in Dakar or Accra in West Africa.

Drug users constitute a large and growing proportion of the prison population. Drug users not only commit a substantial amount of crime, but as the frequency of drug use increases, the frequency of crime increases and the severity of crimes committed also increases.

The American Correctional Association notes that more than 95 percent of drug and alcohol offenders in the us will be discharged from prison, most without receiving any treatment. Because of the high association between drug abuse and recidivism, it is in the public interest to place offenders in the kinds of treatment programs that have been found effective. A noticeable reduction in drug use and criminality can occur with an alliance between the criminal justice system and drug abuse treatment.

Public expenditures for drug abuse treatment are wise and prudent investments. Research has shown that funds invested in drug treatment reduces future criminal justice costs for treated offenders.For every dollar spent for drug treatment, $11.54 is saved in social costs, including law enforcement costs, losses to victims, and government funds for health care.

We are looking to reach out to all health professionals, rehab professionals and anybody that would be willing to devote a little time and energy to help get The Pura Calma Africa Rehab Project rolling in the right direction.

Our goal is to establish a holistic rehab centre using 100% natural remedies and focusing on resources which are indigenous to Africa.

Pura Calma Africa Rehab
Our facility will offer a drug addiction treatment will include a Holistic approach to drug rehab programs, to go deeper offering an extensive, multi-faceted drug addiction treatment that treats the root of the problem rather than just the symptoms.

Our vision is to introduce to West Africa an effective programme which could then be duplicated all over the continent.
It would include:
he holistic programme would include:
Self-control training 
Social-skills training 
Community reinforcement 
Educational lectures and films
General counseling
Ibogaine Therapy
Psychotherapy and other milieu therapies
Yoga, Tai Chi, Guided Meditation
Acupuncture
Gender Specific Groups
Mind - Body - Spirit Program
Stress Management
Massage
Music Therapy
Nutrition and diet
Personal Training and Exercise 
Use of indigenous plants and Herbs
Holistic natural detox
Outpatient Treatment
Continuing Care / Aftercare

Contribute a word, an idea, your time or experience and help us make Pura Calma Africa Rehab a success for Africa.

Share with us wildharvestpharma@gmail.com

European Drug Use is Fueling Addiction in West Africa

May 6, 2013, 3:05 pm

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There’s a disparity between the way we choose what we buy in stores, and what we buy on the streets. As a result, one of the world’s most deprived areas is being plunged further into violence crime and addiction.

Despite the world’s gaze being fixed on West Africa due to the Malian conflict,  the destruction of that part of the world by the increased flow of narcotics through the area is still not widely known. It’s not hard to understand why an area of ungovernable desert and underfunded governments is a fine breeding ground for cartels to operate. Couple that with the endemic poverty of countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso (where around half of the population live on less than $1.25 per day) and the supply of drug runners who will work for little remuneration is endless.

In the last ten years trafficking in the area has boomed. 13% of the world’s cocaine, with a street value of $15-$20 billion, now travels through the region -  roughly the same as the entire GDP of Mali or Guinea and twice that of Mauritania, some of the worst affected areas. Naturally, new gangs have formed from Guinea-Bisseau and Guinea right through to the north of the continent; to protect supply lines to the lucrative European market. As with all gangs, tales of organised brutality in the region – one all to familiar with violence – are beginning to surface. As with all drugs gangs, they target the vulnerable young.

For years, West African cocaine traffickers have worked as mules for Latin American drug cartels seeking to smuggle their powder to Europe. But now the mules are going independent — and muscling their former bosses out of some of the world’s most in-demand drug turf.

According to a report released this week by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, West African drug smugglers are playing a more direct role in trafficking the $1.25 billion worth of cocaine moving through the region every year. The West African cartels are now shipping cocaine by sea, a safer alternative for traffickers than high-risk smuggling on commercial planes, which can more easily be interdicted by police.

The African cartels are also cooking meth. According to the report, there’s now evidence of large-scale methamphetamine production in Nigeria, along with trafficking in the region growing rapidly since 2009. Ephedrine, an organic compound used in decongestants and a commonly-used precursor for meth, is loosely regulated in West Africa and hard to track.

The United Nations says the rate of consumption of illegal drugs in Africa is on the rise. Africa in terms of hard drugs has never been a continent for consumption, however that situation is rapidly changing. According to UN statistics 37,000 people in Africa die annually from diseases associated with the consumption of illegal drugs. The UN estimates there are 28 million drug users in Africa,there are an estimated 1.5 million of coke users in West Africa alone, the figure for the United States and Canada is 32 million and to make matters worse the 
region lacks drug-treatment centres.

More African youths are becoming addicted to hard drugs, while West Africa gradually transforms from a drug transportation region, to a drug consuming region and finally a drug producing one. According to the Washington Post, the transit route fulfills a cocaine market in Europe that has grown four fold in the past few years and reaches an amount almost equal to  the United States.

A growing amount of the drugs coming from Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil into West Africa are being consumed locally.  This is new, though not surprising:  low prices and high supply of cocaine, particularly around the main entry points in Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry cause havoc among a youth, already so distraught by so many problems. Its now certain that drug addiction is coming to Africa in a massaive wave.

European and U.S consumer markets are providing the demand for this trade. In the most recent British crime survey it has been revealed that cocaine use had more  than trebled among consumers. Up from 1.3% to 4.2% of the 16-24 demographic group were users during the period 2011/12. However, among  consumers there is little responsibility for the effects of their consumption.

The majority of consumers fall into two broad categories. Firstly, there are the apathetic and uninformed who either care little or know nothing of the harms of the trade. Secondly, and increasing in size, there are those who avert the blame; choosing instead to point to the criminal status of cocaine and shirking responsibility to policy makers. They miss the point. Even if it were decriminalised in Europe, it would still be illegal in the more socially conservative African west. It would still cause just as much harm.

The current problems only tell half the story. The reason the focus of this piece is West Africa and not Latin America is poverty. The impoverished nature of West Africa means that governments have few resources to fight what are increasingly well-armed and well-funded drugs gangs. Much of South and Central America is mired in conflict arising from the cocaine trade. The huge demand for Drugs in Europe and the U.S is creating a legion of home grown crack addicts and dire social problems.

However, the relatively wealthier nature of the states means that living standards are not as adversely affected despite the all too frequent incidences of brutality. Guinea and Guinea-Bissau which are the main port countries for cocaine arriving from South America are among the world’s poorest countries. Money being spent combating drugs gangs is money desperately needed for infrastructural and education spending.

The situation in Mali is dire. Fuelled by demand from Europe, cocaine trafficking is rampant in the Saharan state. Its ungovernable desert borders to the north make for safe routes for cartels to access North Africa and beyond. Its southern-based central government lacks the capability to mount any sort of response to the vast organised criminal gangs. Factor into this already bleak picture the current conflict that is creating uncertainty and harming investment opportunities, and living standards are plummeting.

The notion that we ought not to buy things produced or transported by dubious means has been around for centuries. From the boycotts of sugar picked by slaves in the late eighteenth century, to more modern practices such as the refusal to buy products made in sweatshops, or those that have been tested on animals. People have often been the standard bearers for conscientious consumption. There is however one outlier. Worryingly, many who wouldn't dream of lining their coats with fur all to keenly line their nostrils with cocaine, one of the most damaging industries. One that is destabilising a part of the world which can ill-afford it.


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Crystal Meth Labs in West Africa On The Rise

July 21, 2013, 12:38 pm

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May evening last year, as a tropical downpour lashed Lagos, Nigerian drug enforcement agents received the tip off that would lead to a game-changing bust. Hours earlier, Baez Benitez Milan,aka Fabian Arcila,  a car dealer from Paraguay, had entered the country, telling airport officials that this, one of Africa's most notoriously gridlocked, chaotic cities, was ideal for plying his motor trade.

Instead, he drove to an unfinished, weed-choked building on the deserted outskirts of town, and holed up there for weeks. When agents eventually stormed the building, they found an amphetamine-producing factory capable of churning out 25kg of white crystal meth powder, or "ice", every few hours. Benitez Milan was, in fact, a Colombian drug runner named Gonzalo Osorio, whose skills in the rapid set-up of clandestine laboratories commanded a $38,000 (£25,000) weekly fee. The factory, one of an intended three, was among the earliest to be discovered in west Africa, and signalled a disturbing new chapter in the regional drug trade.

Narcotic investigators in Lagos arrested seven members of the criminal gang who are helping in further investigation. Apart from Osorio, there are Gabriel Onyebuchi Obi, Anthony Ebi, Olisa Cyprian Onyebuchukwu, Mickey Ezeokoli, Solomon Ogbonna and Chidi Alexandra Efeagwazi.

“Twelve vehicles belonging to the suspects have been confiscated. In addition, four houses have also been traced to the criminal group by the agency.”

The NDLEA boss explained that the operation that led to the arrest of the suspects started in November 2011 after Osorio was contracted by a Nigerian drug syndicate to establish three methamphetamine production laboratories in different parts of the country. 

The first clandestine laboratory Osorio established was situated at Majek area of Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State while another one was located in Nanka village in Nnewi area of Anambra State. He added that the gang was in the process of establishing the third laboratory when the members were apprehended by NDLEA officers.

Giade said, “Gonzelo-Osorio left the country in December 2011 and returned on May 30, 2012 with a false identity as a citizen of Paraguay with the name Baez Benitez Milan on his travel documents. He is regarded as the best methamphetamine production expert in the business and was hired on $38,000 dollars weekly by the drug cartel.”

For the past decade, west Africa's creek-lined coast has been a pipeline for trafficking South American cocaine to Europe and Asia. About $1.25bn of illicit trade has passed through annually, responsible in part for destabilising huge swathes of the region, from Mali's recent turmoil to the narco-state of Guinea-Bissau. But now home grown criminal syndicates that previously earned cuts by providing mules for Latin American cartels are cooking up their own slice of the global drug pie. Their narcotic of choice is methamphetamine, a highly profitable powder concocted using readily available and legal ingredients.

"This is the next niche for criminal groups in west Africa because you can easily cook it at home, and you can easily adjust it for supply and demand. It is slowly but surely spreading in the region," said Pierre Lapaque, head of the United Nations office on drugs and crime in west Africa, whose latest report highlights the rising trade.

Four large-scale crystal meth labs have been discovered in Nigeria. Shipments of precursor chemicals have been seized in neighbouring Benin and Togo and in Guinea officials discovered huge vats used to cook MDMA, a similar synthetic drug.

Bola, a lanky drug baron with twitching hands who is based in down town Lagos, said only local wrestlers bought synthetic drugs when he started peddling eight years ago. "It was difficult to sell. Now the guys selling [meth] to big boys and foreigners in the VIP dens can no longer come to areas like this because they will be robbed. Everybody knows they make big money," he said.

Behind Bola's stifling, corrugated iron shop selling dusty cartons of soft drinks is a warren of cramped brick-walled rooms barely high enough to stand up in. Ghoulish in the occasional shard of sunlight piercing through the haze, dealers and glassy-eyed users slump on wooden benches, hunch over chessboards or incessantly chop and wrap mounds of crystalline powder.

In the 1930's, amphetamine was marketed as Benzedrine in an over-the-counter inhaler to treat nasal congestion (for asthmatics, hay fever sufferers, and people with colds). A probable direct reaction to the Depression and Prohibition, the drug was used and abused by non-asthmatics looking for a buzz. By 1937 amphetamine was available by prescription in tablet form.

Methamphetamine went into wide use during World War II, when both sides used it to keep troops awake. High doses were given to Japanese Kamikaze pilots before their suicide missions.


During the Second World War, US soldiers and aviators were given benzedrine, anamphetamine drug, to increase their alertness during long periods on duty. British troops used 72 million amphetamine tablets in the second world war and the RAF used so many that "Methedrine won the Battle of Britain" according to one report.

In the United States in the 1950s, legally manufactured tablets of both dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine) and methamphetamine (Methedrine) became readily available and were used non-medically by college students, truck drivers, and athletes. As use of amphetamines spread, so did their abuse. Amphetamines became a cure-all for such things as weight control to treating mild depression.

Crystal meth or Shabu is a powerful central nervous system stimulant. People use it for the feelings of stimulation and euphoria that it provides. Like any psychostimulant, it makes users more wakeful and agitated while reducing their appetite. These effects are caused by the release of large amounts of a chemical called dopaminein the parts of the brain that are responsible for pleasurable sensations. Methamphetamine has a chemical structure similar to amphetamine’s, but its effects on the central nervous system are twice as powerful. Methamphetamine use can also damage the cells that release dopamine and serotonin in the nervous system.

The most common ways that people take crystal meth are by ingesting it orally in tablet or pill form, by inhaling it nasally (“snorting” it) in powder form, by smoking it, or by injecting it intravenously. When crystal meth is taken orally, its effects begin after 15 or 20 minutes and can last 12 hours, or even 24. It is absorbed far more rapidly when snorted, and even more rapidly when smoked or when injected intravenously. Its effects are then felt almost instantaneously and may include a euphoria so intense that it feels orgasmic, commonly known as a rush. It is important to note that the faster a drug is absorbed, the more intense its effects will be, and the more addictive it will be. Hence methamphetamine, when smoked, snorted, or injected, is one of the most addictive drugs on the illicit market.

Given that users develop a tolerance for amphetamines very quickly, many users will begin to take several doses in a row to maintain the feeling of a high and avoid the symptoms of withdrawal that set in when they stop taking these drugs. During these periods of heavy consumption, known as binges, users stop eating and sleeping. Intravenous users may inject as much as a gram of crystal meth every 2 or 3 hours for several days in a row. They will cease this destructive consumption pattern only when their supply of the drug is exhausted and they can no longer get any more, or when their behaviour becomes so disorganized that they cannot continue.

Crystal meth that is smoked, inhaled, or injected is one of the most powerful psychostimulants available on the illicit drug market. Users therefore become physically and psychologically dependent on it rapidly, and the desire to consume more of it then becomes a constant preoccupation and eventually an obsession. The only way to satisfy this obsession is to go on another binge. Chronic users usually display various symptoms of anxiety, insomnia and depression.

They may also display a variety of psychotic symptoms, such as paranoia and auditory hallucinations, and sometimes even violent behaviour.

These psychotic symptoms can persist for months or even years after someone has stopped using the drug. Symptoms of meth abuse include: dramatic weight loss, facial disfigurement, social dysfunction (loss of job, family, friends, or money; schizophrenic-like behavior), and extremely poor dentition ("meth mouth," resulting in broken teeth, severe gum infections, and oral wasting

The growing popularity of crystal meth in the gay community seems to be coinciding with an increase in HIV and Type B and Type C hepatitis infections. This increase might be largely due to the sharing of syringes and needles to inject this drug intravenously. Dependent users’ craving to take another dose of crystal meth as soon as they can makes them ignore safe injection practices. In addition, this drug modifies sexual behaviour by increasing libido and reducing inhibitions, so users also tend to ignore safe sex practices, such as using a condom.

Another significant issue is that the manufacturing of methamphetamine releases hazardous toxic substances into the environment. These substances include flammable solvents, chlorinated solvents, phosphorus, iodine, heavy metals such as lead and mercury, and various other pollutants that are highly hazardous to public health. Manufacturing one kilogram of methamphetamine produces roughly five to six kilograms of toxic waste. The operating conditions in clandestine laboratories present risks not only for the environment, but also for the illicit drug producers themselves, as well as for their neighbours and for the police, firefighters, ambulance attendants and other emergency workers who may be called to the scene of these laboratories.

What makes methamphetamine such an attractive high? Meth users report that after taking the drug they experience a sudden "rush" of pleasure or a prolonged sense of euphoria, as well as increased energy, focus, confidence, sexual prowess and feelings of desirability. However, after that first try, users require more and more of the drug to get that feeling again, and maintain it. With repeated use, methamphetamine exacts a toll on the mind and body, robbing users of their physical health and cognitive abilities, their libido and good looks, and their ability to experience pleasure. Here's how the body reacts to meth and the consequences of long-term abuse.

In lab experiments done on animals, sex causes dopamine levels to jump from 100 to 200 units, and cocaine causes them to spike to 350 units. "[With] methamphetamine you get a release from the base level to about 1,250 units, something that's about 12 times as much of a release of dopamine as you get from food and sex and other pleasurable activities

When addicts use meth over and over again, the drug actually changes their brain chemistry, destroying the wiring in the brain's pleasure centres and making it increasingly impossible to experience any pleasure at all. 

Meth Aand The Brain
Meth releases a surge of dopamine, causing an intense rush of pleasure or prolonged sense of euphoria. Over time, meth destroys dopamine receptors, making it impossible to feel pleasure.
Although these pleasure centres can heal over time, research suggests that damage to users' cognitive abilities may be permanent. Chronic abuse can lead to psychotic behaviour  including paranoia, insomnia, anxiety, extreme aggression, delusions and hallucinations, and even death.

Visible Signs
Meth abuse causes the destruction of tissues and blood vessels, inhibiting the body's ability to repair itself.
Acne appears, sores take longer to heal, and the skin loses its luster and elasticity, making the user appear years, even decades older.
Poor diet, tooth grinding and oral hygiene results in tooth decay and loss.

Meth Mouth
"Meth mouth" is characterized by broken, discoloured and rotting teeth.
The drug causes the salivary glands to dry out, which allows the mouth's acids to eat away at the tooth enamel, causing cavities.
Teeth are further damaged when users obsessively grind their teeth, binge on sugary food and drinks, and neglect to brush or floss for long periods of time.

Sex And Meth
Meth heightens the libido and impairs judgement  which can lead to risky sexual behaviour.
Many users take the drug intravenously, increasing their chances of contracting diseases such as Hepatitis B or C and HIV/AIDS.

Meth's Other Effects On The Body
Increased heart rate
Disorganized lifestyle
Lowered resistance to illness
Liver damage
Convulsions
Extreme rise in body temperature, which can cause brain damage
Stroke
Death

Most international orders come from South Africa and more recently Asia "because many people are afraid to go. The punishment there if they should catch you … " Bola mimed a knife across his throat, indicating the death penalty.

A kilo of meth exported to south-east Asia, where some countries have reported a 250% increase in traffickers from west Africa arrested over five years, brings in $45,000. In Bola's den, poorer users pay $1.20 for a single hit.

Crystal meth was traditionally brewed by US biker gangs but laws were tightened in 2005, curbing production. Thousands of miles away, there was unintended fallout. "Cocaine trafficking was falling because we were making record seizures. Suddenly we started making more and more interceptions of methamphetamine leaving the country, but nothing at all was coming in. We realised criminals had started making it within our borders," said Mitchell Ofojeyu, an official at the heavily guarded headquarters of Nigeria's drug enforcement agency.

Some worry the effects of this new trade will spill over into local communities, raising the spectre of rising crime and health problems.

"The warning signals are there that this really is a problem that could run amok in years ahead if comparable resources aren't devoted to the human consumption side," said Alan Doss, a senior adviser at the Geneva-based Kofi Annan Foundation.

For now, widespread unfamiliarity among the local population has sometimes got in the way of curbing the trade. When Nigerian officials discovered their first meth factory, they wanted to storm the site immediately.

"We didn't realise the chemicals were so poisonous. It was our international partners who told us: 'Look, you basically have to kit yourself up as if you're going to the moon'," said Ofojeyu.

Drug cartels are literally mass producing methamphetamine in makeshift super labs and the business is thriving.

The main reason for this is that methamphetamine is made from completely legal products that are easily accessed. The profit margin is also extremely attractive to drug cartels. A kilo of methamphetamine can sell for 38,000 to 45,000 dollars in Asia and labs can produce a kilo for just 500 dollars pumping out 300  kilos a day. While professional chemists are hired to set up the labs, daily operations are usually run by less skilled “cooks,” who are told to  follow the “recipe” written by the chemist.