US drug enforcement agent killed in Colombia

An official of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has been shot dead in Colombia.
Police say the man, Frank Moreno, was killed after an argument outside a nightclub in an up-market area of the capital, Bogota, late on Saturday.
A police spokesman said the killing did not appear to be planned and it was not immediately clear if Mr Moreno was on duty at the time.

Toronto's Pearson International Airport. drug ring

TORONTO -- Eleven people have been charged in connection to what police say is an international drug ring, after a major bust occurred earlier this week at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
On Thursday (July 19) the Toronto Airport Drug Enforcement Unit arrested and charged eight people with drug related offences in relation to the importation, exportation and trafficking of approximately 39 kilograms of ecstasy tablets, three kilograms of cocaine, eight pounds of marijuana and $106,000 cash, said a press release.
Since then, police have executed seven search warrants in connection with the dismantling of this "criminal ring operating between Canada and the United States," the release said.

Friday, 6 October 2006, Royal Navy

The Royal Navy has helped seize a haul of cocaine, with an estimated value of £60m on Britain's streets, from a ship off the coast of West Africa.
Nearly two tonnes of the drug was found stashed below deck on the 100-feet long Panamanian-registered freighter.
Acting on British intelligence, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll was diverted from exercises to take Spanish customs officials to stop Ster II.
The six West African crew members put up no resistance, the Royal Navy said.
The Spanish customs team were flown out to join Argyll in Navy helicopters before boarding the target freighter in the Atlantic, 1,600 miles south of the Canary Islands.
Among its crew were five Senegalese and one person from Guinea Bissau.
British officers had worked with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and law enforcement authorities from Spain, France and the US to trace the cocaine.
On Friday, the Argyll and the captured freighter were heading for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands where they are expected to arrive next weekend.

UK agency seizes £3bn of cocaine

The UK's new nationwide law enforcement agency says it seized one fifth of Europe's cocaine supply in its first year of operation.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency said 73 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of £3bn were uncovered.
In its annual report, Soca reveals it has prevented 35 potential murders and drawn up a list of 1,600 crime chiefs.
But critics have called for more transparency - saying it is difficult to genuinely judge its progress.
The agency began operation in April 2006 following the merger of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies.
In its first annual report, Soca said it had:
Seized cocaine worth £125m to producers - a major hit to traffickers
Arrested 749 people in the UK and 1,096 overseas
Achieved a 95% success rate in the courts, including with inherited cases.

UK's answer to FBI accused of spin in drug seizures claims

Headline-grabbing claims of record drugs seizures by Britain's answer to the FBI - the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) - have prompted calls for a parliamentary investigation amid suspicions that the organisation is "spinning" its success.
Soca's recent boast that it has seized a record 73 tons of cocaine in its first year was widely reported across the media. But the agency is refusing to provide any evidence to back up its dramatic claims.
According to Soca's chairman, Sir Stephen Lander, a former MI5 chief, the huge haul of cocaine had a street value of £3bn and equalled one-fifth of the annual supply to Europe. But when The Independent on Sunday asked the agency to provide a breakdown of its cocaine seizures it stalled for 11 days before saying it was "unwilling" to provide any details.

Feds weed out drug paraphernalia sites

The US Justice Department on Monday said it indicted 11 Web site operators for allegedly selling illegal devices including bongs and holders for marijuana cigarettes.
Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters that the government would ask a US district court in Pittsburgh to point the sites to a Web page at the Drug Enforcement Administration explaining why they were taken offline, a new twist in crime-fighting.

Nato dumps Afghan opium adverts

BBC News - Nato forces in Afghanistan say that they have withdrawn paid adverts on a radio station which implied it was acceptable to grow opium poppies.
A Nato spokesman told the BBC that the advert was "ambiguously worded".
The decision followed complaints from the Afghan government and the UN that the alliance was appearing to condone the illicit crop.
The advert was paid for by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and aired in Helmand province.
The province in the south is one of the largest opium-producing area in the world and the centre of a large Nato-led anti-Taleban offensive.

US under fire over Afghan poppy plan

The US is proceeding with plans for a big crop-spraying programme to destroy opium poppies in Afghanistan, in spite of resistance from the government of President Hamid Karzai and objections from some senior US military officers who fear it will fuel the Taliban insurgency.
A US delegation will soon leave for Kabul to persuade Mr Karzai that glycophate, a herbicide that is widely applied by US farmers, is safe to use and that trial ground-spraying should begin for the first time since the US ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop

Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop set another record this season, despite intensified eradication efforts, the American ambassador said Tuesday.
Ambassador William Wood said preliminary data show that Afghan farmers harvested 457,135 acres of opium poppies this year, compared to 407,715 acres last year. The growing industry fuels the Taliban, crime, addiction and government corruption.
Government-led eradication efforts destroyed about 49,420 acres of poppies this year, a "disappointing" outcome, Wood told reporters at his private residence overlooking Kabul.
Wood said he strongly supports forced eradication, alluding to U.S.-led poppy-spraying in Colombia. But he said there is "not yet an international consensus" on the practice.