Peru and Bolivia have signed a joint agreement to bolster their counter-narcotics fight by allowing their naval units to share satellite information to monitor airspace over Lake Titicaca.
Bolivian Deputy Minister of Social Defense Felipe Cáceres announced the agreement on November 18. The neighboring countries will also work in cooperation to coordinate maritime drug seizes on South America’s largest lake that borders both nations.
“Today, there are fully operational contact points for the exchange of intelligence information,” Cáceres told reporters at a press conference. “It will complement our liaison officers, and we will have drug police on the side of Peru and the Bolivian side.”
The agreement also calls for the countries to work together in 2015 to eradicate plantations of coca – the main ingredient use to make cocaine – along their border region and in Peru’s Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valley (VRAEM), which is the world’s top region for coca cultivation. About half of 450 tons of cocaine produced in Perú annually is flown to Bolivia by plane before being routed to Central America, North America, Brazil, Mexico, Europe and Asia.
Colombian police dismantle gang suspected of using drug mules
The Colombian National Police recently captured 11 alleged gang members who are suspected of using people known as “drug mules” to smuggle drugs to Asia.
Colombian law enforcement authorities have charged four of the suspects with murder in connection with the overdose death of a woman identified by prosecutors as “Leticia.” Law enforcement authorities did not release details of her overdose. Drug mules often ingest drugs wrapped in plastic to smuggle them to other countries, and some die when a package opens.
The Prosecutor’s Office announced the death of the drug mule and the murder charges against the four suspects in a November 19 press release.
Colombian police captured 11 of the alleged gang members in on November 18 as part of Operation Rising Sun, apprehending the leaders in Cali and the rest in undisclosed locations. They’ve been charged with trafficking, manufacturing, and possessing narcotics. Police also seized 500 capsules of narcotics, in addition to a pill-making machine.
The gang members allegedly trained drug mules to ingest narcotics or tape them to their bodies so they could successfully board flights to Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Thailand.
Mexican narco-traffickers trying to expand
methamphetamine trade
The biggest methamphetamine seizure in Spain’s history indicates Mexican narco-traffickers are expanding the narcotic’s trade beyond the Americas, Antoni Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Criminal Investigation Division of the Mossos d’Esquadra, said on November 19.
Mossos d’Esquadra agents at the Port of Barcelona confiscated 131 kilograms of methamphetamine found in a shipment of 18,000 cans of pineapple that originated in Jalisco, Mexico. The pineapple shipment was destined for Australia. The methamphetamine, which could have been broken into more than 600,000 tablets, had a street value of about $37 million (USD).
Officers arrested two suspects from Jalisco, Mexico. Police investigators traced the shipment after a local businessman opened four cans of the pineapple, which he was considering buying. When he discovered the hidden methamphetamine, the businessman notified police, who launched an investigation.
Mexican drug cartels are targeting Australia because a kilogram of methamphetamine sells there for US $215,121. That is nearly twice the amount the drug sells for in the U.S., and about 20 times the amount it would sell for in Mexico, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The Mossos d’Esquadra hasn’t disclosed which drug cartel is suspected of the shipment. The Sinaloa Cartel is known for transporting drugs into Europe and Australia.
Alleged Israeli narco-trafficker arrested in Paraguay
The National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Paraguay (SENAD) captured alleged Israeli narco-trafficker Yaron Eli on November 20.
Eli is accused of being part of an international drug trafficking organization that smuggled narcotics into Paraguay, Brazil and Israel. He was named in an arrest warrant after SENAD, the Paraguayan National Police and Israeli security agents dismantled the drug network Eli allegedly worked with in April. That effort, “Operation Nile,” took place in the cities of Asunción, Lambaré, Ciudad del Este and Areguá.
Security force captured Eli in Nemby. They also arrested five alleged gang members and seized 26 kilograms of cocaine, according to SENAD.
In May, security forces captured Juan Carlos Da Rosa, the gang’s alleged leader, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Peru and Bolivia have signed a joint agreement to bolster their counter-narcotics fight by allowing their naval units to share satellite information to monitor airspace over Lake Titicaca.
Bolivian Deputy Minister of Social Defense Felipe Cáceres announced the agreement on November 18. The neighboring countries will also work in cooperation to coordinate maritime drug seizes on South America’s largest lake that borders both nations.
“Today, there are fully operational contact points for the exchange of intelligence information,” Cáceres told reporters at a press conference. “It will complement our liaison officers, and we will have drug police on the side of Peru and the Bolivian side.”
The agreement also calls for the countries to work together in 2015 to eradicate plantations of coca – the main ingredient use to make cocaine – along their border region and in Peru’s Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valley (VRAEM), which is the world’s top region for coca cultivation. About half of 450 tons of cocaine produced in Perú annually is flown to Bolivia by plane before being routed to Central America, North America, Brazil, Mexico, Europe and Asia.
Colombian police dismantle gang suspected of using drug mules
The Colombian National Police recently captured 11 alleged gang members who are suspected of using people known as “drug mules” to smuggle drugs to Asia.
Colombian law enforcement authorities have charged four of the suspects with murder in connection with the overdose death of a woman identified by prosecutors as “Leticia.” Law enforcement authorities did not release details of her overdose. Drug mules often ingest drugs wrapped in plastic to smuggle them to other countries, and some die when a package opens.
The Prosecutor’s Office announced the death of the drug mule and the murder charges against the four suspects in a November 19 press release.
Colombian police captured 11 of the alleged gang members in on November 18 as part of Operation Rising Sun, apprehending the leaders in Cali and the rest in undisclosed locations. They’ve been charged with trafficking, manufacturing, and possessing narcotics. Police also seized 500 capsules of narcotics, in addition to a pill-making machine.
The gang members allegedly trained drug mules to ingest narcotics or tape them to their bodies so they could successfully board flights to Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Thailand.
Mexican narco-traffickers trying to expand
methamphetamine trade
The biggest methamphetamine seizure in Spain’s history indicates Mexican narco-traffickers are expanding the narcotic’s trade beyond the Americas, Antoni Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Criminal Investigation Division of the Mossos d’Esquadra, said on November 19.
Mossos d’Esquadra agents at the Port of Barcelona confiscated 131 kilograms of methamphetamine found in a shipment of 18,000 cans of pineapple that originated in Jalisco, Mexico. The pineapple shipment was destined for Australia. The methamphetamine, which could have been broken into more than 600,000 tablets, had a street value of about $37 million (USD).
Officers arrested two suspects from Jalisco, Mexico. Police investigators traced the shipment after a local businessman opened four cans of the pineapple, which he was considering buying. When he discovered the hidden methamphetamine, the businessman notified police, who launched an investigation.
Mexican drug cartels are targeting Australia because a kilogram of methamphetamine sells there for US $215,121. That is nearly twice the amount the drug sells for in the U.S., and about 20 times the amount it would sell for in Mexico, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The Mossos d’Esquadra hasn’t disclosed which drug cartel is suspected of the shipment. The Sinaloa Cartel is known for transporting drugs into Europe and Australia.
Alleged Israeli narco-trafficker arrested in Paraguay
The National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Paraguay (SENAD) captured alleged Israeli narco-trafficker Yaron Eli on November 20.
Eli is accused of being part of an international drug trafficking organization that smuggled narcotics into Paraguay, Brazil and Israel. He was named in an arrest warrant after SENAD, the Paraguayan National Police and Israeli security agents dismantled the drug network Eli allegedly worked with in April. That effort, “Operation Nile,” took place in the cities of Asunción, Lambaré, Ciudad del Este and Areguá.
Security force captured Eli in Nemby. They also arrested five alleged gang members and seized 26 kilograms of cocaine, according to SENAD.
In May, security forces captured Juan Carlos Da Rosa, the gang’s alleged leader, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
I THINK IT’S HIGHLY POSITIVE. THERE SHOULD BE MORE INTEGRATION BETWEEN ALL THE FORCES IN CHARGE OF SUPPRESSING THE SALE AND USE OF DRUGS
Clodomiro Bravo Michell, attorney, Santiago-Chile