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There is real danger that Islamic extremist groups such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah could form alliances with wealthy and powerful Latin American drug lords to launch new terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Extremist group operatives have already been identified in several Latin American countries, mostly involved in fundraising and finding logistical support. But Charles Allen, chief of intelligence analysis at the Homeland Security Department, said they could use well-established smuggling routes and drug profits to bring people or even weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. "The presence of these people in the region leaves open the possibility that...

Some 40 people have been killed in drug-related violence in the past week in Tijuana, bringing the total so far this year to more than 400. On Monday, 12 bodies were found outside an elementary school and an additional four victims were discovered in another section of the city. Nine more bodies were discovered near a day care on Thursday and two other bodies were found elsewhere.

Yreka, Calif. - Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins said that approximately 100,000 marijuana plants were discovered at various garden locations in western Siskiyou County last week. Involved in the discoveries were the Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Eradication Team, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies, Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies, the United States Forest Service, the Department of Fish and Game, and the California Highway Patrol Air Division. Riggins noted that a representative from the Fish and Game Department came along to assess the damage to the environment caused by marijuana operations. Riggins said that on Friday, the agencies involved discovered a garden in the...

Ryan O'Neal and his son were arrested Wednesday morning after authorities said they found drugs at the actor's Malibu home during a routine probation check. Investigators suspect both men had methamphetamine, but the substances still need to be tested, Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies and probation officers went to O'Neal's home for a routine check of his son Redmond, who is serving three years of probation after pleading guilty in June to drug possession charges. Whitmore said in addition to drugs that deputies suspect belong to Redmond O'Neal, deputies also found narcotics in...

A massacre at a drug rehab center last week helped push the number of homicides in the Mexican border city of Juarez to more than 800 this year as rival drug gangs battle for turf. On Wednesday a commando-style group fired a barrage of more than 60 rounds during a religious service at the drug rehab center, killing eight and wounding five. Five other people were killed elsewhere in the city on that day. More than 100 people have been killed so far in August in the war between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels, which broke out in January,...

Berwyn Heights' mayor is expected today to ask federal officials to investigate possible civil rights violations stemming from last week's raid of his Prince George's County home by police officers who shot and killed his two dogs, his attorney said. Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, will ask for a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry during a 2 p.m. news conference today outside their Berwyn Heights home, said Timothy Maloney, their attorney. "They're going to call for the Justice Department to come in," Maloney said. Calvo's home was raided by the county Sheriff's Office SWAT team and narcotics...

For the first time in recent years Cameron County's Democratic Party may not have a candidate on the ballot for a constable's race in the November general election. Precinct 1 Constable Saul P. Ochoa was to represent the party in the election, but after pleading guilty last month to a charge of distributing marijuana, it knocks him out of the race. The Democratic Party has until Aug. 26 to nominate another candidate in his place. However, with Ochoa's sentencing on the drug charge not scheduled until Sept. 22, this leaves the party without a candidate in this election. "I don't...

Appearing before Mexico's drug-fighting Federal Police, John McCain promised Thursday that as president, he would quickly implement a U.S. aid package to give the officers more helicopters, technology and training. Mr. McCain, visiting the federal force's new command center as he concluded a three-day trip to Colombia and Mexico, paid his condolences to the hundreds of officers who have died in the drug fight since President Felipe Calderón took office 19 months ago. Those deaths, Mr. McCain said, "will not be in vain." "I want to thank President Calderón and the people of Mexico for their efforts in making our...

Three Harvard psychiatrists facing a US Senate inquiry got a vote of confidence from their hospital as "beloved and trusted by thousands of grateful children and families." Senator Charles Grassley is looking into the doctors' failure to report payments of more than a million dollars in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007. A memo from top officials at Massachusetts General Hospital obtained by the Globe praised Drs. Joseph Biederman, Timothy Wilens, and Thomas Spencer as "pioneers in the field of child mental health" while also endorsing "closely managed" collaboration with industry and promising a review of conflict-of-interest...

Mexico City (dpa) - A 12-year-old girl died in northern Mexico after alleged members of a drug gang forced her and two friends into a van, apparently using them as human shields in a shootout, Mexican media reported Wednesday. The girl reportedly died on Monday in Ciudad Juarez, a violent city on the border with the United States. The girls were in a park when they were forced into the van. Later, they were used in a shootout with another vehicle. The authorities presumed the drug gang attempted to use the girls as a shield, to keep at bay a...

Diplomacy: When a neighbor's house is on fire, it makes sense to send water, not argue about building codes. Except to Democrats. As Mexico reels from its drug war, Congress is withholding critical help. It's a lethal logic. The Merida Initiative, proposed to Congress by President Bush after consultations with Mexico last fall, is a three-year, $1.4 billion program to help Mexico wipe out drug traffickers and terrorists. For years they've scourged Mexico, but never as now, since President Felipe Calderon dispatched 36,000 troops to fight them in 2006. Taking these barbarians on is critical to Mexico's future and an...

"A sad commentary is that when one of these individuals was arrested, he inquired as to whether or not his arrest and incarceration would have an effect on his becoming a federal law enforcement officer," reported the DEA's Ralph Partridge, describing one of the 96 arrestees in the recent San Diego State University drug sweep. It is a sad commentary on many aspects of higher ed, and it gets sadder. Two students have died of drug overdoses on SDSU's campus in the past year. The DEA was surprised by the extent of the campus drug ring, which is believed to...

NEW YORK - In one-on-one interviews with 700 Americans, roughly 23 percent reported loaning their prescription medications to someone else, and 27 percent reported borrowing prescription medications. The medications most frequently shared (loaned or borrowed) were allergy drugs like Allegra (25 percent), followed by pain medications like Darvoset and OxyContin (22 percent); and antibiotics like amoxicillin (21 percent). Seven percent of those interviewed said they shared mood-altering drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, Ritalin and Valium. A little more than 6 percent said they shared the prescription anti-acne drug Accutane and about 5 percent shared birth control pills.

Police and federal agents have been raiding indoor marijuana growing operations at houses in the Seattle area. The U.S. attorney's office says 14 people and two companies have been indicted. Federal agents and police called a 1 p.m. news conference Wednesday at the federal building in Seattle to discuss the raids and the investigation they call "Operation Green Reaper."

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law. The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a traffic ticket offense. David Lee Moore was pulled over for driving on a suspended license. The violation is a minor crime in Virginia and calls for police to issue a court summons and let the driver go. Instead, city detectives arrested Moore and prosecutors...

REGINA, Saskatchewan, April 21 (UPI) -- Three Canadian men from a Saskatchewan reservation were sentenced Monday to prison for running a marijuana farm the leader claimed was the Creator's order. The men were found guilty of running a farm of 10 marijuana greenhouses, or what Canadian police describe as "grow-ops," in Regina in February. The judge sentenced alleged ringleader Lawrence Agecoutay to six years in prison, his brother Robert to 3 1/2 years and Chester Girard to 5 1/2 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized more than 6,000 marijuana plants in the raid in...

LAPD detectives say Sam Flemming was truly skid row's nickel and dime drug dealer. LAPD narcotics detectives said that when they arrested him last Thursday after watching him sell rock cocaine in the heart of skid row, they found $11,000 in his pockets. But when they got a search warrant for his apartment -- a block from the LAPD's Central Station -- they found 1.5 pounds of cocaine and $135,035 in bills and coins. What detectives say was more shocking was that $11,000 was in dollar bills and about $6,000 was in quarters, nickels and dimes.

WASHINGTON – Victor Varela, the alleged leader of a firearms trafficking network operating in Arizona and New Mexico, was arrested by special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and Attorney General’s Office in Arizona, today announced ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell of the ATF Phoenix Field Division and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. As part of an ATF Project Gunrunner investigation, law enforcement officers disrupted a group of gun traffickers and recovered several weapons, including .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles and several handguns, allegedly intended to...

AS HE TROOPS about Europe, with notebook and camera crew, guidebook author Rick Steves witnesses what the late historian Barbara Tuchman called "The March of Folly," the sites of wars and witch hunts waged by feckless rulers. Steves has come home with a mind to take on our leaders' folly, the federal government's enduring, woefully unsuccessful War on Drugs, and the battle front against marijuana. He would replace a strategy of locking people up with a policy designed to lessen harm. It's a lot like the "Four Pillars" approach to drug use adopted by Vancouver, B.C.: treatment, harm reduction, prevention...

The railroading of Ryan Frederick Imagine you're home alone. It's 8 p.m. You work an early shift and need to be out the door before sunrise, so you're already in bed. Your nerves are a bit frazzled, because earlier in the week someone broke into your home. Oddly, they didn't take anything; they just rifled through your belongings. But the violation weighs on your mind. At about the time you drift off, you're awakened by fierce barking from your two large dogs. You hear someone crashing into your front door, as if he's trying to separate it from its hinges....

Metro Atlanta may get a little bloodier. Call it a sign of success. Jack Killorin, who heads a federal narcotics task force, said his agents are rolling up drug-trafficking organizations to the point that they have decreased the quality and raised the price of drugs on the street. Narcotics task force chief Jack Killorin says thefts are up because criminals have to pay more. He credits last year's spike in area burglaries, robberies and car thefts in part to criminals forced to pay more for their illicit drugs. If law enforcement someday succeeds in breaking up established drug territories —...

U.S. incarcerates more than any other nation: report Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:20pm EST By James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail, according to a report released on Thursday. The report by the Pew Center on the States said the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults at the start of the year. The far more populous nation of China ranked second with...

The Geopolitics of Dope January 29, 2008 | 2103 GMT By George Friedman Over recent months, the level of violence along the U.S.-Mexican border has begun to rise substantially, with some of it spilling into the United States. Last week, the Mexican government began military operations on its side of the border against Mexican gangs engaged in smuggling drugs into the United States. The action apparently pushed some of the gang members north into the United States in a bid for sanctuary. Low-level violence is endemic to the border region. But while not without precedent, movement of organized, armed cadres...

Over recent months, the level of violence along the U.S.-Mexican border has begun to rise substantially, with some of it spilling into the United States. Last week, the Mexican government began military operations on its side of the border against Mexican gangs engaged in smuggling drugs into the United States. The action apparently pushed some of the gang members north into the United States in a bid for sanctuary. Low-level violence is endemic to the border region. But while not without precedent, movement of organized, armed cadres into the United States on this scale goes beyond what has become accepted...

* Published Date: 12 January 2008 * Source: Northants Evening Telegraph Police smash down door of wrong house in drugs raid A MOTHER and her three-year-old son watched in horror as police smashed their way into their home during a drugs raid at the wrong address. Officers smashed the window and broke down the door to the house in Highfield Road, Kettering, as Michelle Kightley and her son were inside. It was only after the six officers had started searching the house that Mrs Kightley told them they must have the wrong address, the warrant was checked and the mistake...

A national pro-pot group that backs a Bay State campaign to decriminalize marijuana is shopping around a new Swiss study showing that teens who smoke grass are just as likely to get good grades as kids who abstain. The study, which is being promoted by the Marijuana Policy Project, found teens who smoked pot were also more likely to have strong relationships with friends and were not any more likely to be depressed than their substance-free counterparts. A top Beacon Hill lawmaker slammed the study, which was published in last month’s issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. “It’s...

1. AFTER PABLO On the day of his death, December 2nd, 1993, the Colombian billionaire drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was on the run and living in a small, tiled-roof house in a middle-class neighborhood of Medellín, close to the soccer stadium. He died, theatrically, ­ridiculously, gunned down by a Colombian police manhunt squad while he tried to flee across the barrio's rooftops, a fat, bearded man who had kicked off his flip-flops to try to outrun the bullets. The first thing the American drug agents who arrived on the scene wanted to do was to make sure that the corpse...

MEXICO CITY - Blessed with charm and good looks, Sandra Avila Beltran is enthralling Mexico. Not as a beauty queen, but as an alleged drug lord, and the story of her arrest and possible extradition to the U.S. is being followed more closely than a telenovela. Police say the raven-haired 46-year-old spent more than a decade working her way to the top echelons of Mexico's male-dominated drug trade, uniting Colombian and Mexican gangs, and seducing several notorious kingpins. Dubbed the "Queen of the Pacific," she even has her own song — a "narcocorrido" folk ballad about drug traffickers by...

BALKH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - As Afghanistan struggles to cut its raging opium production, aid workers try to find alternative crops, but for some former poppy farmers the choice was easy -- they planted marijuana instead. Afghanistan's opium crop topped all records this year, producing some 93 percent of the world's supply of the drug. But while there has been a sharp rise in poppy production in the troubled south, the drug crop has been eliminated in a growing number of provinces in the safer north of the country. Balkh province in the north was trumpeted as a success story --...

Falcons quarterback Michael Vick tested positive for marijuana and will face stricter release conditions from a federal court judge, according to court documents. Vick will be sentenced on Dec. 10 after entering a plea agreement in federal court on charges related to dogfighting. He faces up to five years in prison. A probation officer, Patricia Locket-Ross, petitioned Judge Henry E. Hudson to impose stricter pretrial release conditions after Vick tested positive for marijuana in a urine sample he submitted on Sept. 13. In court documents Wednesday, Hudson ordered that Vick submit to any method of testing, "for determining whether the...

A decade ago, California became the first of a dozen states in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. True believers, including many doctors, say pot works to ease pain or counter the side effects of chemotherapy. And the National Academy of Sciences agrees, if the drug is carefully used. Critics see medical use as the gateway to legalizing all marijuana. Well, how is the California state law working? For one thing, the federal government still views marijuana, medical or otherwise, as illegal and has been cracking down on dispensaries that sell it. For another, it's clear there are legions of...

"Life or Meth" DVDs are heading to all of Idaho's secondary schools to use in education programs to combat the growing methamphetamine problem in the Gem State and retired teachers are paying the freight. State statistics show Idaho is in the top ten nationwide in methamphetamine abuse. Alarmingly, chocolate and strawberry-flavored methamphetamine wrapped like candy has been found in Idaho and the Idaho Education Association is sounding the alarm. The group's "Retired Task Force" is delivering "Life or Meth" DVDs to representatives of every secondary school in the state. Sherri Wood with IEA tells SVO teachers can use the DVD...

A new kind of methamphetamine that has a strawberry flavor and bright pink coloring was seized for the first time in Carson City during a search of a Como Street apartment on Saturday, an official said. "(We are) concerned that this new type of meth will be more attractive to a younger crowd and may surface in schools," said Sgt. Darrin Sloan, commander of the Carson City Sheriff's Department's Special Enforcement Team. "Parents and teachers, please be aware of this new kind of drug that is making its way into our culture." Sloan said SET officers served a search warrant...

Today, despite America’s three-decades-long national War on Drugs, we are still in the midst of what many have called a “drug epidemic.” If we abandon our policy of “containment”—the long-term effort to reduce the production and consumption of drugs—how far would this epidemic spread through the general population? If most people, or even a substantial minority, became drug addicts whose whole existence revolved around getting their next fix, the prospects for our society would look bleak indeed.

MEXICO CITY — A government-run human rights commission accused soldiers of rape and torture today and recommended the army be pulled out of Mexico's nationwide drug war. The report by the National Human Rights Commission is the first official document to back up long-standing allegations of human rights abuses by soldiers ordered by President Felipe Calderon to retake large swaths of territory controlled by powerful drug cartels. Military officials declined to comment on the report, saying any response to the allegations would come in a press statement. Calderon ordered the nationwide crackdown shortly after taking office on Dec. 1, and...

Drug addicts in the town of Drammen say they were offered money or free kebabs to vote for the Labour Party in the local election last week. Bent Sandberg was offered NOK 50 (about USD 9) to vote for the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) in the local election last week. He declined the bribe.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) recently said that, if elected president, he would end the federal raids on medical marijuana patients and their health care providers. That makes the Democratic field unanimous now — all would end the raids and allow the states to craft their own medical marijuana policy, free from federal interference. By contrast, just two of the remaining GOP candidates — Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) — and none of the front-runners have promised to call off the raids. This is unfortunate for a party that once fancied itself the torch-bearer for federalism —...

The Belmont City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting smoking in multiunit housing, a measure hailed by supporters as a landmark ban that will give residents relief from second-hand smoke drifting into their apartments and condominiums. "It's to give people who are intolerant of second-hand smoke a chance to say, 'Please stop - you're violating the city's ordinance,' in the same way that if your neighbor has a loud rock band, you can say, 'Please stop,' " City Councilman Dave Warden said today. The council passed the measure Tuesday night by a vote of 3-2. The ordinance also bans smoking...

When federal agents raided the Pittsburgh-area office of Dr. Bernard L. Rottschaefer, the resulting allegations came as a shock to the 63-year-old man's friends and family: Rottschaefer, the office of U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan alleged, had been writing prescriptions for anti-anxiety medication and opiate painkillers like OxyContin in exchange for sex. Rottschaefer's arrest came at the height of a nationwide moral panic over prescription painkiller abuse. His 2004 trial came just after the Orlando Sentinel newspaper had published a landmark series on abuse of the painkiller OxyContin, a series that inspired Congressional hearings and legislation across the country-and a...

A northeastern Pennsylvania cocaine ring that allegedly rang up sales of more than $31 million over three years was broken up Thursday as law enforcement officials announced charges against 40 suspects. The arrests came after a seven-month undercover investigation launched after two confidential informants approached police with information about the sale of crack cocaine in the Hazleton area. State Attorney General Tom Corbett said that some of the suspects are believed to be illegal immigrants - a disclosure that is sure to add fuel to the debate over Hazleton's now-defunct Illegal Immigration Relief Act. According to a criminal complaint, undercover...

25 Percent Drop in Marijuana Use by Teen Boys More Youths Starting Drug Use with Painkillers Than Marijuana; Prescription Drug Abuse Remains a Concern WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Overall illicit drug use among teens ages 12-17 is at a five year low, according to the largest and most comprehensive study of drug use in the United States, released today. But when it comes to youth, nonmedical use of painkillers continues to be an area of concern, with more recent initiates (2.2 million) than any illicit drug, reveals the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Since 2002, current...

The police chief's wife was arrested during a drug bust at a Nevada nightclub where she works as a stripper named "Ecstasy." Sylvia Tripp, 39, was booked into the Elko County, Nev., jail on suspicion of drug distribution and possessing medication without a prescription... Tripp is the wife of Vaughn Tripp, the police chief in Wendover, a city on the Utah-Nevada border. She was one of three people arrested Friday after undercover officers made drug buys. "She was a drug store," ...

Jury finds couple guilty in pot case By: Penne Usher, Journal Staff Writer Two Cool residents were found guilty in federal court Thursday of manufacturing and selling large amounts of marijuana. But the Cool professionals, Marion "Molly" Fry, a doctor and her lawyer husband, Dale Schafer, say they are unfairly targeted and that the pot they were growing, completely legal, was allowed under the California Compassionate Use Act. "They were convicted by the jury of all charges in the indictment after three hours of deliberation," Rosemary Shawl, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday. "The are out of custody...

TAMPA - An appeals court called the case against Mark O'Hara "absurd" and "ridiculous," but the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is refusing to drop charges against the 45-year-old Dunedin man. O'Hara appeared before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta Wednesday morning, his first time in court since his release from prison July 25. During the brief hearing, prosecutor Darrell Dirks indicated his office plans to pursue a second trial for O'Hara, who was accused of drug trafficking after authorities found 58 Vicodin pills in his bread truck. He had legal prescriptions for the drugs.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - A reputed leader of Colombia's biggest drug cartel, his features radically altered by plastic surgery, was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using advanced voice recognition technology, the suspect's lawyer said Friday. Brazilian police had difficulty making a positive identification of Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia while they investigated a money laundering scheme he orchestrated in hiding in Brazil, but got a break after taping him on the telephone and passing that information to agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said the lawyer, Sergio Alambert. The recording was compared in the United States to...

The standard, schoolbook history of alcohol prohibition in the United States goes like this: Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas, despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work. It soon became clear that people weren't giving up drinking. Worse, it also became clear that Prohibition fueled mobsters who grew rich supplying illegal booze. So, recognizing the futility of Prohibition, Americans repealed it in 1934. This popular belief is completely mistaken. Here's what really happened: - snip - So, if the history of alcohol prohibition is a guide, drug...

See for example this thread first. For this story, believe it or not-- The cops found seven acres of pot So in order to close it, they had to bulldoze If they'd burned, how high would they have got?

WASHINGTON --One in 12 full-time workers in the United States acknowledges having used illegal drugs in the past month, the government reports. Most of those who report using illicit drugs are employed full-time, with the highest rates among restaurant workers, 17.4 percent, and construction workers, 15.1 percent, according to a federal study being released Monday. About 4 percent of teachers and social service workers reported using illegal drugs in the past month, which was among the lowest rates.

WARSAW, Poland -- Doctors said a baby boy in Poland was born drunk. Physicians checked the newborn's blood-alcohol level because his mother was drunk when she arrived to give birth. A doctor said that 12 hours after he was born, the boy had a blood alcohol count six times the legal limit for driving. They said that means he was drunk before he was even born. Doctors said the baby will likely suffer permanent neurological damage as a result of his mother's drinking.

'Hugely talented': Lucy Braham pictured at work in her studio when she was still at school The father of a fashion designer hacked to death by her drug-crazed neighbour has condemned Oxford University and Harrow School for failing to tackle his addiction. Old Harrovian William Jaggs, 23, stripped and then stabbed 25-year-old Lucy Braham 66 times at her home after she rejected his gift of a kitten. The two were the children of masters at the public school and had known each other for over 20 years. An Old Bailey judge accepted Jaggs's plea of guilty to manslaughter on...