A BRITISH agent has thrown the war against drug traffickers into chaos by leaving top secret information about covert operations on a bus in South America. In a blunder that has cost taxpayers millions of pounds and put scores of lives at risk, the drugs liaison officer lost a computer memory stick said to contain a list of undercover agents' names and details of more than five years of intelligence work. It happened when the MI6-trained agent left her handbag on a transit coach at El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia. Intelligence chiefs were forced to wind up operations and relocate dozens of agents and informants amid fears the device could fall into the hands of drugs barons. [continues 134 words]
The Panic Spread Fast When an Undercover British Officer Mislaid Key Secrets in a Colombian Airport AS the plane from Ecuador began its descent into the Colombian capital of Bogota, Agent T must have felt a shiver of excitement about her new assignment. She was being posted to the drugs capital of the world - where she had secured a role gathering intelligence in the war against the global cocaine trade worth UKP 50 billion a year. An undercover customs officer with Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), she would be responsible for dozens of undercover agents providing vital information on Colombia's drugs cartels. The job involved liaising with MI5 and MI6, the British security and intelligence services, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). [continues 1004 words]
Doctors will today make an extraordinary call for the legalisation of all drugs. The move comes as a devastating new report sparked fears of an epidemic of schizophrenia caused by the widespread used of cannabis by young people. Scientists claim that cannabis users are seven times more likely to develop mental illness. The study - by Professor Robin Murray, head of the Institute of Psychiatry in London - says the drug is already a leading cause of psychosis in the UK. Yet at the British Medical Association's annual conference today, dozens of doctors will back radical moves to make illegal drugs including heroin and cocaine available from authorised government outlets. [continues 372 words]
