Free Republic

They have tried aerial assaults and stiff jail sentences. Now Colombian officials have a new and unlikely weapon to combat the cocaine trade: push-up bras and thongs. Some 900 peasant women in Colombia are set to make racy lingerie and sell it to French supermarket chain Carrefour under a U.N.-backed program aimed at encouraging impoverished farmers and their families to stop growing drug crops. "We thought it was a very original idea. These are regions where there are drug crops and people need legal jobs," said Thierry Rostan of the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Bogota....

Mexico disbands anti-drugs force in drive against corruption By Kieran Murray in Mexico City 18 January 2003 Mexican soldiers have raided and closed the offices of a federal anti-drugs force in a crackdown on agents who work for or protect drug traffickers. Rafael Macedo, the Attorney General, who ordered the raids, said the 200-strong narcotics unit, Feads, will be shut down and its agents investigated. He said the government of President Vicente Fox had launched an all-out war on police corruption and scored some major successes but more work was needed. "We have to admit there are people who have...

Turkey becomes a permanent member of US anti-drug conference -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turkish Police have announced that Turkey has become a permanent member of the U.S. International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC). According to a written statement delivered by the Police Press Office, it was recalled that the U.S. International Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been organizing a regional conference, namely IDEC, every year with the participation of Southern, Central and Northern America and Caribbean countries, since 1983. These conferences aim at exchanging information on drugs and preventing drug trafficking by increasing the cooperation and developing regional activities among IDEC members, the statement...