BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- President Andres Pastrana called Thursday for a review of the global war against drugs, saying it should extend beyond the U.S.-backed spraying of drug crops. Pastrana, who is to meet here with Secretary of State Colin Powell next week, also said Washington's suspension of joint interdiction of drug flights with Colombia and Peru "has allowed a lot of drugs to pass over our territory because there is no control of our airspace." The program was suspended after a U.S. missionary plane was accidentally shot down over the Peruvian Amazon in April. Pastrana urged the United States and its allies to establish a policy on interdiction. "I think we can truly hit the heart of the [drug] business, through interdiction and not simply through fumigation," Pastrana told a small group of foreign reporters. [end]
MADISON, WISCONSIN -- An inmate at Kettle Moraine State Prison must complete a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program before he could be paroled, despite the man's objections because of religious beliefs, an appeals court ruled Thursday. Frederick Spence was sentenced to life in prison in 1982. Thirteen years later, prison officials decided Spence should participate in a drug and alcohol treatment program before he could move to a minimum-security level or be paroled. When Spence appeared before the parole board in 1996, board members declined to parole him, saying he had not yet served enough time in prison and had to complete the drug treatment program. [continues 92 words]
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO -- Police arrested more than 1,100 people with outstanding warrants in a "mega-raid" throughout the island, a local newspaper reported Friday. Police had rounded up 1,105 people, including 16 murder suspects, by Thursday evening, said The San Juan Star. It was the island's sixth islandwide raid this year, the newspaper said. At least 475 of those arrested were wanted on drug charges. Narcotics agents confiscated 37 vehicles, cash and hundreds of small bags of marijuana, heroin and cocaine, the newspaper reported. [end]
August 5, 1999 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle challenged the news media Wednesday to check out rumors of cocaine use by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential front-runner. Daschle accused the media of having a double standard, observing that reporters press First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton about private aspects of her life but "seem to accept" Bush's evasive answers to questions about cocaine. "The media in general seem to be respecting far more his privacy and his lack of willingness to discuss his past than you might have been with others," Daschle said. [continues 107 words]
MADRID, SPAIN -- Spanish police said on Monday they had arrested 17 people over the weekend after a two-year investigation into a drug ring that smuggled hashish from Morocco to Europe. The latest arrests brought the total number of people detained in the operation to 95, a police statement said. More than 54 tons of hashish had been seized over two years. "The organization, the biggest of its kind in Spain, has been totally dismantled," the statement said. "Among those arrested were those in charge of the operation and various foreigners," it added. [continues 101 words]
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Mexicans mourned Tuesday the death of a well-known television game show host whose daylight murder bore the hallmarks of a professional hit, officials said, raising the specter of links to drug traffickers or organized crime. A day after Francisco "Paco" Stanley, 56, was shot four times in the head while he sat in the front seat of his luxury car, crime-weary residents of Mexico City swarmed to the funeral home where his body lay in a closed coffin. [continues 58 words]
PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD -- Trinidad hanged three convicted murderers Friday, ending a five-year hiatus in using the death penalty and possibly leading the way for dozens of other executions in the Caribbean. Reputed drug lord Dole Chadee "gave no trouble and went to the gallows" at dawn, Prisons Commissioner Cipriani Baptiste said. Joey Ramiah and Ramkhalawan Singh followed; three more are to hang Saturday and three others on Monday. Chadee and his "gang of eight" were convicted of killing Hamilton Baboolal and three family members in a 1994 drug dispute. [continues 128 words]
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA -- A federal investigator confirmed Thursday that the driver of a charter bus that crashed Sunday morning, killing 22 people, tested positive for marijuana when he was hospitalized after the bus veered off a highway and plunged into an embankment. Authorities also revealed that Frank Bedell, 46, had been fired from bus companies in 1996 and 1989 after testing positive for marijuana four times. It was unclear how long before the crash Bedell might have smoked marijuana or whether the presence of the drug in his system contributed to the accident, said Ken Suydam, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator. "It's another piece of the puzzle we have to put together," he said. [continues 177 words]
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- A principal known for tough words about drug abuse has been charged with running a narcotics ring at her elementary school. Delores Hill, 53, was arraigned Friday on charges of being the leader of a small drug ring at the Tabernacle Church of God Elementary School in Brooklyn. Hill allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover policewoman on school grounds. She was arrested along with the school nurse, a janitor and another worker. Authorities said the defendants dealt drugs to adults while children were in class. [continues 90 words]
DETROIT, MICHIGAN -- Police on Monday issued warrants charging four suburban males with manslaughter and poisoning in the death of a teenage girl whose alcoholic drink allegedly was spiked with a "date-rape" drug. Wayne County prosecutors authorized the warrants two months after 15-year-old Samantha Reid and two other girls became ill at ta mid-January party on Grosse Ile, an affluent island community on the Detroit River. Police Chief William Barron said the warrants accuse the four unidentified suspects of three counts each of poisoning and one count each of manslaughter. [continues 152 words]
LANSING, MICHIGAN -- Michigan Atty. Gen. Frank Kelley said Thursday he had filed an administrative complaint against an East Lansing bar where a university student drank for 90 minutes before dying of alcohol poisoning. The four-count complaint was filed with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission against Rick's American Cafe in Bradley McCue's death on his 21st birthday. Authorities say McCue, a Michigan State University student from Clarkston, drank 24 shots of liquor until about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 5, when a Rick's worker told McCue to leave because he was drunk. [continues 74 words]
MIAMI, FLORIDA -- An investigation of Miami-Dade County jails found that officers helped smuggle contraband to inmates, a newspaper reported Sunday. A yearlong, secret probe by police and the FBI claimed that jail officers looked the other way or took part as marijuana and cocaine were brought to inmates in exchange for cash, jewelry and sporting equipment, The Miami Herald said. Citing unidentified sources, the paper reported that the probe focused on the Dade County Jail and the Knight Correctional Center, a 1,000-bed pretrial facility, although allegations were made about all four county jails. At least 15 corrections employees and 20 alleged drug dealers are scheduled to be arrested on federal and state charges, the newspaper reported. - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake [end]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Negligence by the Justice and Defense Departments set the stage for the May 1997 shooting death of a West Texas teenager as he herded his family's goats near a Marine Corps surveillance mission, a House report alleged Thursday. A 249-page report examining the shooting and its aftermath, also accused the two departments of obstructing investigations into the death of 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, issued the report, saying: [continues 111 words]
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Three former air force mechanics have been convicted of trying to smuggle heroin to the United States in 1996 on the official jetliner of former President Ernesto Samper. In last week's court action, the mechanics were sentenced to 7 1/2 years in jail. On the eve of a September 1996 trip by Samper to address the UN General Assembly in New York, authorities discovered 8 pounds of heroin stashed in the luggage compartment and nose of the presidential Boeing 707. The incident was a major embarrassment for Samper, whose government already was in upheaval over revelations that Cali drug traffickers helped financed his 1994 campaign. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry [end]
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA -- Gubernatorial candidate Jesse Ventura said Thursday that his musings about legalizing prostitution show he has "the courage to admit" that the present system doesn't work. A day earlier, the Reform Party candidate said Minnesota should consider controlling prostitution by legalizing it, perhaps in certain areas, as Amsterdam does with its red-light district. On Thursday, the former professional wrestler said he would "absolutely not" support legalization but reiterated that Minnesota should consider new ways to solve prostitution and drug use. [continues 53 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Pentagon estimates it will spend $50 million in the coming year to provide the impotence drug Viagra to American troops and military retirees. The cost is roughly the price of two new Marine Corps Harrier jets or 45 Tomahawk cruise missiles and is among unexpected military expenses Pentagon officials recently told Congress have come up since they made their original 1999 budget requests. "Viagra sort of burst on the scene," Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said Friday. Defense Department health officials estimated that if the drug were given to everyone who wanted it, the cost could top $100 million. But the military is limiting Viagra to men diagnosed with erectile dysfunction by a physician, and no one is allowed more than six pills a month. Since Viagra was authorized for sale in the United States in March, the drug has been prescribed to more than 4 million American men, according to its maker, Pfizer Inc. - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski [end]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tobacco companies showered Republicans with dozens of luxury jet flights in the past 18 months, according to Democrats seeking to show voters that the GOP killed tobacco legislation as a favor to the industry. The report by Democrats on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee also showed that many other corporations--from the health industry to casino and insurance interests--provide jet travel to lawmakers of both parties. Federal election law requires the legislators to reimburse companies for the travel. [continues 166 words]
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- The anti-tobacco lobby opened a new front against the makers of cigarettes and cigars Wednesday when the City of Los Angeles sued 16 of them for failing to warn about the dangers of secondhand smoke. City Atty. Jim Hahn said it was the first legal action of its kind in the United States. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the tobacco corporations are violating California Proposition 65, a voter-approved initiative that requires anyone doing business in the state to warn the public before exposing them to carcinogens or other toxins. Hahn said the lawsuit seeks civil penalties that could exceed $2.5 billion. The city also is asking for an injunction that would ban the companies from selling their products in California without first giving "a clear and reasonable warning" about the dangers of secondhand smoke. - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett [end]
HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA -- Police have arrested three people and seized 12,448 marijuana plants from an operation hidden behind a two-story facade made to look like a dream home in the country. Authorities described last week's raid as the state's biggest bust of an indoor marijuana-growing operation. Local and federal drug agents uncovered an indoor dope-growing "factory" that they estimated was capable of producing $500,000 worth of processed marijuana a month. The marijuana was found growing in four buildings on a heavily wooded site in rural Humboldt County, about 225 miles north of San Francisco. [end]
GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA -- Guatemalan troops on Monday freed a group foreigners who had been kidnapped in a jungle region of northern Guatemala, an Interior Ministry official said. "A group from the DOAN (anti-drugs unit) liberated a family of six or seven people, Americans or Swiss, who were detained," the official said. The victims earlier had been identified as 13 Swiss missionaries. Authorities had said the kidnappers were seeking more than $300,000 in ransom.. The anti-narcotics unit was sent to the town of Sayaxche, in the Peten province, a sparsely populated jungle area bordering Mexico and Belize, officials said. The team was mobilized because it was the closest security force in the area. - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski [end]
