TABATINGA, Brazil-Two Brazilian police bolted from a helicopter in Peru's Amazon jungle on a recent day with a squad of Peruvian commandos. Cracks of gunfire shook the forest before the group captured and destroyed a secret cocaine lab. The Brazilians had the legal status of unarmed observers during the Aug. 19 raid led by Peru's elite antidrug police. But both Brazilians carried assault rifles and faced hostile fire. The lab was in Peru, but the raiders flew from a Brazilian airport in a chopper running on Brazilian fuel to hit a target provided by a Brazilian-paid informant. From its Amazon border with Peru to its bustling cities, Brazil is getting drawn deeper into a drug war as surging cocaine use turns it into the world's biggest market after the U.S. It is a surprise since Brazilian politicians once criticized aggressive antidrug strategies espoused by the U.S. as causing more harm than good. [continues 1933 words]
But new techniques have given this Ticuna Indian village near the banks of the Amazon River in Peru a surprising distinction in the global drug trade: It is now home to some of the world's fastest expanding plantations of coca, the raw material in cocaine. The United Nations' annual drug report, to be published Tuesday, is expected to document the big changes in the global cocaine business that are helping drive coca cultivation and cocaine consumption deep into Peru's Amazon near its border with Brazil. [continues 1936 words]
Hampered in the U.S., Drug Traffickers Find a Replacement; Skeletal 'Zombies' Rule Sao Paulo's Cracolandia After Dark. SAO PAULO, Brazil--A crack cocaine outbreak reminiscent of the one that devastated U.S. inner cities in the 1980s is starting to take hold in this South American nation, as drug traffickers facing more difficulty selling into the U.S. are pioneering markets elsewhere. In Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, what to do about the hundreds of zombielike addicts who by night wander a downtown no man's land known as Cracolandia, or Crackland, has become a key issue for local elections this year. But mayors from Rio de Janeiro to outposts in the Amazon lament that dangerous cracklands are sprouting in their cities as well. [continues 1287 words]
Colombia's Success in Curbing the Drug Trade Has Created More Opportunities for Countries Hostile to the United States. What Happens When Coca Farmers and Their Allies Are in Charge?. In the dusty town of Villa Tunari in Bolivia's tropical coca-growing region, farmers used to barricade their roads against U.S.-backed drug police sent to prevent their leafy crop from becoming cocaine. These days, the police are gone, the coca is plentiful and locals close off roads for multiday block parties--not rumbles with law enforcement. [continues 2327 words]
MEXICO CITY -- When pressed about why Mexico is struggling in its battle with illegal-drug cartels, Genaro Garcia Luna, the nation's top police official, likes to put his inquisitors on the spot with a question: Would you encourage your child to become a Mexican cop? The answer, he says, is often no. The reputation of Mexican police is so poor that even Mr. Garcia Luna, a stocky, frenetic man with close-cropped hair, would have given the same answer not long ago. As a young domestic intelligence officer at Mexico's spy agency in the 1990s, he says, he would have been "offended" if anyone referred to him as a cop. [continues 2467 words]
All Were Seized From Drug Lords in Mexico, Along With a Secret Hot-Tub Lair MEXICO CITY -- When a Mexican drug lord gets busted, what happens to his emerald-encrusted pistols? The answer lies at a little-known branch of the Finance Ministry that manages the over-the-top mansions, armor-plated Hummers and other assets seized in the Mexican government's escalating war on drug cartels. The agency is called the Asset Administration and Disposal Service, or SAE as it's known for short in Spanish. [continues 1184 words]
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- Days after President Evo Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Washington has added the country to its list of nations failing to fight illegal narcotics, a decision that could have economic consequences for the natural-gas-rich nation. The move could embolden U.S. lawmakers who oppose the renewal of Bolivia's trade preferences, which are due to expire in the coming months. Such an economic blow would add to Mr. Morales's problems. Mr. Morales is battling provincial governors who have declared autonomy in the nation's gas-rich farmlands. They accuse Mr. Morales of trying to impose a Cuba-styled regime by nationalizing industries and pushing a new constitution that redefines property, centralizes power and grants rights based on ethnicity. [continues 340 words]
Capella Accepts Job Few Others Want Amid Drug Violence TIJUANA, Mexico -- If this country's war on drugs is going to work, the new police commissioner here, Alberto Capella, needs to stay alive. The trouble is, men like Mr. Capella are a dying breed. In the past year and a half, about 450 Mexican lawmen have been killed by the country's drug gangs, including a growing list of police chiefs. Weeks ago, hit men killed the head of Mexico's elite Federal Police. [continues 1203 words]
President Mobilizes Military to Stem Rising Drug Violence; an Appeal for U.S. Assistance MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderon escalated Mexico's bloody clash with narcotics gangs this month by dispatching troops to the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. They got a grisly greeting: A severed human head at the barracks with a note scoffing at the president's efforts. Mr. Calderon is taking on heavily armed drug gangs on a scale that is unprecedented in Mexico. Since taking office Dec. 1, he has ordered 24,000 soldiers and federal police to states where drug lords hold sway. This year he has extradited to the U.S. at least 15 drug kingpins who were running their gangs from Mexican jails; in 2006, Mexico extradited a major drug lord to the U.S. for the first time. [continues 1047 words]
Winnipeg police failed to properly address suspicions that vice officers were drinking the night Abe Hiebert was shot, an RCMP report states. "They did not investigate in-depth or thoroughly enough to either prove or dispel fully the issue of alcohol consumption," says the report by RCMP Staff Sgt. William Anderson, then head of RCMP's serious crimes unit in Manitoba. In inquest testimony yesterday, Anderson said the entire investigation would benefit from a deeper look into drinking at the vice office. [continues 416 words]
Wanted to clean up before brass arrived, inquest told WINNIPEG POLICE vice division officers were copying child pornography, smoking cigars and writing slurs against senior officers -- but not drinking -- at their office the evening Abe Hiebert was fatally shot by police, an inquest heard yesterday. Const. David Black, a 21-year-member of the Winnipeg Police Service, admitted to having two rum-and-cokes earlier at a party attended by almost the entire on-duty vice squad. Black said he was "instructed" to go to the party by his sergeant. He denied anyone continued drinking at the vice office after the party. [continues 376 words]
Shooting justified, Hiebert inquest told ABE HIEBERT was acting defensively when he threatened police with a bat, yet officers were still justified in shooting him, an inquest was told yesterday. Patrol Sgt. Randy LaHaie, who trains Winnipeg Police in safety and personal defence, agreed with lawyer Martin Pollock that Hiebert was acting like someone trying to defend himself and prevent people from entering his north end house when he was shot and killed on Dec. 16, 1997. However, LaHaie said Det. Sgt. Len Small was justified in shooting Hiebert, because Small believed Hiebert was about to seriously injure his colleague, Const. Harol Schlamp. [continues 425 words]
Fear Of Gang Attack Led To Dealer's Fatal Shooting, Wife Testifies ABE HIEBERT was convinced his home was being invaded by a street gang moments before Winnipeg police burst into his kitchen and shot him dead, an inquest heard yesterday. Wilma Cameron, Hiebert's wife, testified the 60-year-old drug dealer armed himself with a baseball bat and pepper spray to fend off what they both believed was an attack not by police, but by gang members looking for drugs and money. [continues 820 words]
Commotion during raid detailed at inquest A VICE squad member rang the front doorbell of Abe Hiebert's home as a team of police officers was breaking in the back, raising the possibility yesterday at an inquest into his death that he had lashed out at officers in confusion. Hiebert was shot and killed by a Winnipeg police officer on Dec. 16, 1997, after he hit police with pepper spray and a baseball bat as they tried to break down his back door. [continues 355 words]
Police association wants Pollock reprimanded for giving media evidence from fatal shooting THE WINNIPEG Police Association wants him reprimanded, but a lawyer remained unrepentant yesterday after questions were raised that vice officers were drinking just before Abe Hiebert was fatally shot two years ago. "Why am I being vilified?" Martin Pollock, lawyer for Hiebert's family, asked outside the Law Courts Building. Boyd Campbell, vice-president of the Winnipeg Police Association, said the association is going to review Pollock's actions with an eye to launching a complaint before the Law Society of Manitoba. [continues 583 words]
Hash stashed in planes sparks concern over security at airports FRESH FROM the sun and rum of Jamaica, they got off their Air Canada Airbus like any other returning holidayers last Sunday evening. They picked up their luggage inside the terminal of Winnipeg International Airport, answered questions from Customs officers and caught a ride home. What they didn't know was that they shared their flight from Montego Bay with an illegal shipment. Stashed behind paneling in the cockpit compartment were 1.1 kilos of hashish. The smuggled drugs were later found by a maintenance worker -- the seventh time since last summer that cocaine or hash have been found hidden aboard Air Canada planes in Winnipeg. [continues 937 words]
MANITOBA ENVIRONMENT is investigating after RCMP used diesel fuel to send almost $2-million worth of marijuana up in smoke on the weekend. ``Burning of marijuana is a pretty unique complaint for us,'' said Al Beck, Interlake regional supervisor for Manitoba Environment. Mounties in Fisher Branch destroyed the marijuana, which was seized earlier this month from area fields, on Friday evening. They asked the Fisher Branch volunteer fire department to burn it for them at a gravel pit near Broad Valley. [continues 284 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- With California's network of medical marijuana clubs on the verge of total collapse, a coalition of elected officials wants the state to take over distribution of the plant. The coalition, led by state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, will try to hammer out a concrete proposal for a state-sponsored medical marijuana distribution program during a May 26 summit at the state Capitol, Vasconcellos said Monday. The proposal would be added to a medical marijuana bill currently under consideration at the state level, a Vasconcellos aide said. [continues 426 words]
Member given building lease so she can reopen SAN FRANCISCO -- With medical marijuana supporters openly smoking pot outside, sheriff's deputies shut down this city's busy Cannabis Cultivators Club on Monday. But club officials said they'd be back a few hours later under a new name. The closure was part of an arranged plan to comply with a court ruling ordering the club's founder, Dennis Peron, to vacate his five-story marijuana dispensary in downtown San Francisco and quit selling pot. [continues 449 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's medical marijuana guru Dennis Peron resigned Thursday as chief of his Cannabis Cultivators Club, effectively closing the busy medical marijuana outlet with the promise that it would reopen under a new name. "It all may seem like a semantic shell game, but we're obeying the spirit of Proposition 215," Peron said, referring to the 1996 law legalizing marijuana possession for the seriously ill and their caregivers. Peron said the operation would shut down at the conclusion of business today. The announcement came one day after a Superior Court judge ordered the outlet closed, ordering Peron and his followers to vacate their downtown San Francisco headquarters and quit the business of selling pot. [continues 300 words]
