Moroccan security services today dismantled a drug ring that did get cocaine and cannabis resin to Europe by land, sea and air and had branches in Latin America, Africa and Europe. According to the note, the network had its headquarters in Mali, from where they carry out their activities "in collusion with terrorists belonging to the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)." The Moroccan Interior Ministry said in a statement that the operation resulted in seven arrests, two of whom are Spanish, and the seizure of "significant sums" in Moroccan and foreign currency, vehicles and tear gas, in addition to caches.Drug Investigations reveal that the network could have introduced the drug in Morocco from Mali, and other quantities of the same substances would have been transported to European countries, which also would have to spend large sums of money in foreign currency. The detainees have been brought to justice and have already begun investigations under the supervision of the prosecution, the statement said.
Three suspected al-Qaeda associates who were apprehended in West Africa by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents during an international anti-drug operation, were extradited to New York and appeared in federal court in Manhattan earlier this year, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Terrorism and Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs committees.
The operation confirms the suspicions of terrorism experts that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are involved in narcotics trafficking to fund their terror operations.
The suspects -- Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure and Idress Abelrahman -- were charged with conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization after they allegedly agreed to transport as much as 1,000 kilos of cocaine. Allegedly, the drugs were earmarked for western European countries and the United States.
The cocaine interdiction and arrests occurred along the traffickers' favorite route through West Africa to North Africa that serves as a launch point for export to Europe. The suspects were taken into custody after an intense undercover investigation in which informants and agents posed as Colombian narco-terrorists who claimed they shared hatred for the United States with the African suspects.
According to the NACOP report, Colombian drug kingpins use the same transshipment techniques in Africa that they've successfully used in Latin America. The Colombian traffickers' utilized al-Qaeda's protection services in order to make certain shipments arrived at their destinations.
DEA officials report that in this case they were able to infiltrate the drug operation during the negotiations phase. The undercover DEA agents and informants indicated they were associated with the Colombia terrorist group FARC and could protect the shipment from West Africa to North Africa and ultimately to Spain.
Issa, Toure and Abelrahman claim to be from Mali, but their nation of origin is yet unknown.
The Taliban made £65million last year from Afghanistan’s opium trade despite the presence of thousands of British troops, a damning UN report has found.
In a startling indication that the war on poppy growing is having little effect, insurgents are still reaping the benefits despite the loss of life and huge amounts of money being thrown at the problem.
The report for the United Nations ominously warns that the illegal trade will grow even more.
Helmand province, where 9,500 British soldiers are battling the Taliban, produced 53 per cent of the country’s opium, the raw ingredient to make heroin.
The insurgents receive about $100million (£65million) a year from Afghanistan’s illegal opium trade. the report said.
"An indictment was handed down Aug. 30 by the Southern District Court of New York that shows a connection between Hezbollah - the proxy army of Iran and a designated terrorist organization - and the drug cartels that violently plague the U.S.-Mexico border.
In short, a well-known international arms dealer was trying to orchestrate an arms-for-drugs deal in which cocaine from FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which works with Mexican drug cartels to take cocaine into America - would be traded for thousands of weapons housed by a Hezbollah operative in Mexico.
"Military police are investigating claims that British soldiers may have been involved in heroin trafficking in Afghanistan.
Officials said they were aware of 'unsubstantiated' claims that troops were buying the illegal drug from dealers and using military aircraft to ship it out the country.
An inquiry has been launched focusing on British and Canadian service personnel at airports in Camp Bastion and Kandahar.
Meanwhile security has been tightened, with additional sniffer dogs being used as part of the crackdown at the bases.
Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's opium.
Some drug bosses in the war-ravaged country have implicated soldiers in the trade.
Last year the Sunday Times spoke to one dealer who said members of the military were the second largest buyers of heroin after foreign drug lords.
The newspaper was told: 'The soldiers whose term of duty is about to finish, they give an order to our boss.'
The dealer, named only as Aziz, added: 'They are carrying these drugs in the military airlines and they can't be reached because they are military. They can take it to the USA or England.'"
This is of course, not surprising, specially considering the boost in heroin production since the NATO coalition entered the country (see here, here, here and here). Of course, that doesn't mean that all military and civil personnel in Afghanistan are drug traffickers, but certainly some of them are benefiting from the trade). The Taliban fall (good altogether) brought to power several of the warlords who were in charge of the drug trade. But certainly the plants should have been destroyed the minute they were planted. Why they weren't? Well, that's a very difficult question to answer...
Honduras' interim government closed its main airport to all flights on Monday after blocking the runway to prevent the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Clashes with his supporters caused the first death in a week of protests.
Police and soldiers blanketed the streets of the capital early Monday, enforcing a sunset-to-sunrise curfew with batons and metal poles. Civil aviation authorities announced a 24-hour ban on all flights at the country's main airport starting Monday morning.
Soldiers clashed Sunday with thousands of Zelaya backers massed at the airport in hopes of welcoming home the deposed leader removed a week earlier.
But military vehicles and soldiers blocked the runway. Pilots of the plane loaned by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez circled the airport and decided not to risk a crash.
Zelaya instead headed for El Salvador, and vowed to try again Monday or Tuesday in his high-stakes effort to return to power in a country where all branches of government have lined up against him.
Zelaya is banking on the confrontation keeping the pressure on the new Honduran government, reported CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.
"I call on the Armed Forces of Honduras to lower their rifles," he said late Sunday at a news conference, flanked by the presidents of El Salvador, Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador, and the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, who flew there from Washington.
"I am risking myself personally to resolve the problems without violence," said Zelaya,
If he was really interested in resolving the problems without violence, he would never return there. He just wants power back.
Meanwhile it looks like that shots which hurt several demonstrators, were fired by other demonstrators who were supporting Zelaya.
Maria Anastasia O'Grady has written a very good piece in WSJ titled: "Honduras defends its democracy".
There is a very interesting connection in drug trade: FARC-Venezuela-Honduras. Actually, 40% of the drug which enters in Europe comes from Venezuela.From this blog we have more interesting data:
Honduras and other Central American nations have become major transshipment points in recent years for Colombian cocaine, particularly as Mexico’s government cracks down on cartels.
The drugs arrive in Honduras on non-commercial aircraft from Venezuela and increasingly in speedboats from Colombia, according to the Key West, Florida-based Joint Interagency Task Force-South, which coordinates drug interdiction in region.
To combat that, Zelaya wanted to legalise drug consumption. I believe that would have been a major movement: everyone could take drugs freely. Yes, the rise on the offered drug would low the price, but the lower price and the freedom to take drugs would surely produce a rise in the people who take drugs. Regarding the rise in insecurity as a result of the drug cartels using the country to transport the drugs, I am not sure that would be ended just because of a legalization. Firstly, drug cartels are not only onto drugs, but diversify their business. So it's probable that, if a legalization arrived, they would smuggle tobacco or other things. Secondly, the legalization of drugs (as happens with tobacco) can't be done to allow any type of drug as there are some who are lethal. So, no one tells the supporters of legalization that there wouldn't be people who would take those drugs to proof their effects.
