MIAMI - A hazardous new synthetic drug originating in China is being blamed for 18 recent deaths in a single South Florida county, as police grapple with an inexpensive narcotic that causes exaggerated strength and dangerous paranoid hallucinations. On Thursday, the Fort Lauderdale police killed a man, reportedly high on the man-made street drug, alpha-PVP, known more commonly as flakka, who had held a woman hostage with a knife to her throat. The shooting of Javoris Washington, 29, was the latest in a series of volatile episodes that the police in South Florida have faced with highly aggressive drug users. Law enforcement agencies have had difficulty tamping down a surge in synthetic drugs, which were banned after becoming popular in clubs five years ago only to re-emerge deadlier than ever under new formulations. As soon as legislation catches up with the latest craze, manufacturers design a new drug to take its place, federal and local law enforcement agencies say. [continues 867 words]
Twenty-Five Years After 'Miami Vice' Became Part of the Country'S Cocaine Culture Lore, Miami Is Leading the Nation in the Beginning Of the End of America'S Three-Decade Cocaine Epidemic, Say Experts In these rough economic times, another pricey extravagance appears to be waning in South Florida: cocaine. The city that gave rise to Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs has seen a decline in people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction or dying from the drug. Twenty five years after Miami Vice became part of the country's cocaine culture lore, Miami is leading the nation in the beginning of the end of America's three-decade cocaine epidemic, say experts. [continues 777 words]
Two Months After The Disappearance Of Colombian Paramilitary Leader Carlos Castano, Authorities Are No Closer To Finding Out Whether He Is Dead Or Alive BOGOTA - Colombia's feared warlord Carlos Castano was either strangled, executed in a hail of bullets on orders of his brother, or kidnapped, buried and exhumed. Or perhaps the founder of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, a notoriously brutal paramilitary group, staged his own death and is now hiding in Israel or the United States. [continues 805 words]
The Land Used to Cultivate Coca in Colombia Dropped 21 Percent In 2003, a State Department Report Says. BOGOTA - The amount of Colombian land used to cultivate coca dropped another 21 percent last year, a figure U.S. officials call "stunning." But the dramatic decline in the plant from which cocaine is made had no impact where it counts most: on the streets of America. The State Department annual report on coca cultivation, issued Monday, showed there were some 280,542 acres of coca plants through 2003, down from 356,791 the year before. [continues 461 words]
On The 10th Anniversary Of The Death Of Colombia's Most Notorious Drug Kingpin, Pablo Escobar Is Still Honored For His Good Works MEDELLIN - Carlos Vanegas tenderly placed yellow and red carnations on Colombia's most infamous grave and said a silent prayer. Someone had clearly beaten him to the marble tomb of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, already decorated with lilies, five dozen white roses, and origami swans. Vanegas pointed to the worn muddy path leading up to the grave. Oh yes, lots of people had visited here before. [continues 652 words]
Washington Wants New Bolivian President Carlos Mesa to Push For Continued Eradication of Coca Crops, but Traditional Growers Are Demanding More Legal Acreage LA PAZ, Bolivia - Coca grower Jacobo Aliago gives Bolivia's new president six months. Max. "The government gives us lots of problems, licenses, controls," he said as he packed green leaves into a 50-pound bag. "They treat us like narco-traffickers. What do we want from President [Carlos] Mesa? We want our coca." Aliago and thousands of other coca growers joined miners, students, teachers and peasants to topple Bolivia's former president this month. And now, emboldened by their clout, the coca growers are looking to roll back a government eradication program they claim was dictated by Washington. [continues 942 words]
BOGOTA - A U.S. drug-fumigation plane flying in bad weather crashed Sunday afternoon, killing the Costa Rican-American pilot, military officials reported. It was at least the fourth crash involving a U.S. antidrug plane this year, and the seventh fatality. Washington has poured about $2.5 billion into Colombia's campaign to eradicate drugs. Part of the funding pays for a fleet of OV-10 planes to spray the nation's coca crops. On Sunday, an OV-10 assigned to the army's anti-narcotics unit crashed in Catatumbo, in the northeastern Colombian state of Norte de Santander. It was unclear whether the plane was shot at by hostile illegal groups on the ground, which run the drug trade here. [continues 242 words]
BOGOTA - On Feb. 13, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes were co-workers, not friends, when they boarded a single-engine Cessna with a secret mission: take spy photos of Colombia's coca crops. By now, the Big Pine Key father of one, the Georgia man who missed the birth of his twins, and the northern Florida pilot may well be chums as captives of leftist guerrillas who watched their plane's engine fail, shot at it, and then snatched the men once they crashed. [continues 978 words]
BOGOTA - In less than two days, the United States will start helping the Colombian Air Force to force down planes suspected of flying drugs and weapons, using a new safety checklist designed to prevent deadly mishaps, officials from both countries said Wednesday. The program in which U.S. government contractors assisted the Colombian and Peruvian air forces to track and force or shoot down suspect planes was suspended April 2001 after the Peruvian jet shot down a missionary flight mistaken for a drug smuggling plane. A Michigan woman and her infant daughter were killed, revealing a series of sloppy procedures that caused the tragedy. [continues 523 words]
Rumsfeld Sees 'Progress' By The Military BOGOTA - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday joined the parade of top U.S. officials visiting Colombia to show support for President Alvaro Uribe and the security forces' progress in their war against drugs and guerrillas. ''We admire and respect the progress being made and the determination being shown,'' Rumsfeld told reporters at a news conference. Rumsfeld also announced that a U.S.-backed program to interdict airplanes carrying drugs and weapons would resume ''within hours or a few days,'' 29 months after it was suspended following the mistaken shoot-down of an American missionary's plane in Peru. President George W. Bush ordered it resumed, following a safety study aimed at preventing future mishaps. [continues 562 words]
Two-time Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada -- known by his countrymen as 'Goni' -- is quite clear where he stands: in a fight to remain in power. Elected last year in a tight race against coca growers' leader Evo Morales and former Cochabamba Mayor Manfred Reyes, Sanchez de Lozada faced crippling riots earlier this year, which forced him to flee the presidential palace as bullets flew through his office. In January, the opposition blocked the nation's roads. In February, the police rose up against him. He runs South America's poorest country. His poll numbers are plummeting. His Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) has been obliged to form an alliance with its former foe, the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), creating an unwieldy coalition blamed for much of the government's inability to move forward on programs. [continues 1877 words]
Colombian Court Cites Good Behavior in Prison BOGOTA - A onetime leader of the notorious Cali drug cartel, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, walked out of prison Thursday night, hours after a court ordered his early release further fueling a national debate over the role of politics in the courts and the powers of presidency. He left the prison in Tunja at 10 p.m, surrounded by dozens of police and soldiers to prevent violence. The government of President Alvaro Uribe, who came into office vowing to crack down on drug trafficking, had tried to block the release by every means possible. In the process, some critics say, he exceeded his authority and undermined the independence of the judiciary. [continues 698 words]
BOGOTA - Carlos Castaqo is a Colombian warlord who admits hunting down the men who kidnapped and killed his father. He acknowledges ordering a brazen 1990 hit on a leftist presidential candidate, and he makes no apologies for leading a paramilitary group that massacres peasants in its zeal to beat leftist rebel insurgents. But lately the head of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, has been saying he is repentant for kidnappings and drug trafficking that have become synonymous with his illegal paramilitary army. [continues 1030 words]
President Had Called For U.N. Help BOGOTA - In their first missive to President Alvaro Uribe, Colombian guerrillas on Thursday rejected the notion of U.N. mediation to end the four-decade long conflict, and the government quickly responded with plans to hire 40,000 new police and soldiers as soon as March. The moves underscore the wide gap between a president and an insurgency equally determined to win a war that has plagued Colombia for nearly 40 years. They also show that, at least for now, a negotiated solution seems out of the question. [continues 674 words]
By Frances Robles BOGOTA - The amount of land under coca cultivation in Colombia dropped substantially last year, the first time in a decade that reflected any progress in the nation's drug war, according to United Nations figures released Thursday. U.N. surveillance photos taken Nov. 2001 show 355,824 acres committed to the growth of coca -- the plant that is used to manufacture cocaine. The year before, it was 11 percent higher at 402,773 acres. "There's no reason to be euphoric," said Klaus Nyholm, head of the UN's Drug Control office in Bogota. "Colombia remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer -- 80 percent of the cocaine in the world." [continues 408 words]
President Uribe Also Imposes A Wartime Surtax On The Wealthy To Expand The Military. BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe declared a state of emergency and imposed a wartime surtax Monday, taking his first steps in a presidency he promised would offer a "firm hand" against rebels. The limited state of emergency lets the government prohibit public rallies or interviews with guerrilla commanders, among other things, and allows curfews, wire-tapping and searches without a court order. Uribe made the announcement in the pre-dawn hours after a six-hour Cabinet meeting, declaring that it was necessary to combat recent terrorism. He said the tax would be aimed at the wealthy to expand the armed forces. [continues 517 words]
Four Miami-Dade Police officers accused of telling lies and planting evidence went to court Tuesday to plead not guilty -- and to keep their pictures out of the newspaper and off television. Three narcotics detectives and their supervisor -- Officers Hector J. Llevat, 25, Andre B. Vaughn, 37, and Florencio Boucourt, 31, and Sgt. Jose J. Diaz, 36 -- were arrested last month after allegedly lying during sworn statements. Prosecutors say the four confiscated drugs from two women who had bought pills and marijuana from a small-time dealer working out of a Kendall townhouse. Prosecutors say the officers let the women go but planted their drugs on someone else. [continues 346 words]
A county judge made the rare move Wednesday of tossing out a closed year-old drug case where the defendant had already been found guilty -- because prosecutors now say the suspect was framed by police officers who are themselves now under arrest. The same day Freddy Castro's record was wiped clean, his lawyer sent a letter to Miami-Dade Police demanding $100,000 for false arrest, false imprisonment and violating Castro's civil rights. Castro, 26, was arrested at his Kendall apartment in May last year along with two roommates. Miami-Dade narcotics detectives said Castro had four grams of marijuana tucked under his mattress. [continues 310 words]
Officers Accused Of Being In Drug Ring Two Miami-Dade Police officers were arrested for allegedly being members of a drug organization that peddled thousands of kilos of cocaine. Arrested Thursday was Luis F. Lopez, 31, a nine-year police veteran assigned to the county's special patrol unit. He was charged with racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and two counts of unlawful compensation. John Lakatis III, 29, quietly quit his seven-year job with the police department's general investigations unit after an April arrest and pleaded guilty to unlawful compensation, police said. Computerized court records do not show what sentence he was given. [continues 323 words]
A Miami-Dade police officer and his business partner were arrested Tuesday for allegedly plotting to conduct a bogus traffic stop with the intention of stealing the driver's drugs and cash. James Vilmenay, 31, a four-year member of the department assigned to the Hammocks district, was charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and conspiracy to commit grand theft. He and his codefendant, Richard Filippi, 29, were released from jail after they each posted a $50,000 bond. Police said Vilmenay and Filippi planned last year to pull over and rob a man who was supposed to be carrying cocaine and lots of money. The man was really a witness cooperating with internal affairs investigators. [continues 231 words]
