A Court Injunction Is Sought Against the Collective-on-Wheels Marijuana Dispensary Riverside County businessman Stewart Hauptman's latest venture gives new meaning to the term "recreational drugs": selling medical marijuana from a souped-up RV parked outside a Norco clinic. He refurbished the motor home, installing display cases, several seats and other amenities. The Lakeview Collective-on-Wheels operated from a lot outside a clinic where people were being evaluated for medical marijuana use. "That way, when patients come out of the clinic, they are able to get the medicine right away," said Hauptman, a videographer-turned-cannabis-entrepreneur. [continues 316 words]
Bolivian President Evo Morales Accuses the DEA Employees of Spying and Helping Criminals to Attack Authorities. Bolivian President Evo Morales suspended operations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Saturday after accusing the agency of aiding "criminal groups" that oppose his rule. Morales' move was the latest sign of the deterioration in relations between his leftist government and Washington. "There were DEA agents who worked to conduct political espionage and to fund criminal groups so they could launch attacks on the lives of authorities, if not the president," Morales told reporters during a visit to the Chapare region, a major production zone for coca plants, from which cocaine is extracted. "We are obligated to defend Bolivian sovereignty." [continues 356 words]
Crackdowns in Mexico Have Prompted Drug Gangs to Look South for Supplies of Ephedrine, a Key Ingredient. BUENOS AIRES -- The three young entrepreneurs met their contacts outside a Wal-Mart here and drove off with them, apparently convinced that they would be celebrating a lucrative new deal. But authorities believe it was a set-up, linked to Mexican mobsters bent on reshaping the global drug trafficking map. The three men were handcuffed, forced to kneel in the mud and sprayed with bullets; their bodies were dumped in a ditch. [continues 1201 words]
President Evo Morales Accuses Ambassador Philip Goldberg of Fostering Divisions in the Fractured Andean Nation. BUENOS AIRES -- Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered the expulsion Wednesday of the U.S. ambassador to his country, accusing him of fostering divisions in the deeply fractured Andean nation. The move comes as tensions rise and violence increases in states opposed to the leftist policies of Morales. The president has regularly accused Washington and its ambassador of plotting against him. "The one who conspires against democracy and above all seeks the division of Bolivia is the ambassador of the United States," Morales said during a speech at the presidential palace. [continues 410 words]
After a lull, production is rising, feeding demand in Brazil, Europe and East Asia, officials say. With flashy cartel men replaced by a piecemeal network, the trafficking is harder to combat. SANTA LUCIA, PERU -- Rustic mule trains ferry vital chemicals to clandestine jungle labs. Booby-trapped fields ward off intruders. Trekkers never seen on the Discovery Channel backpack the prized finished product on epic journeys from steamy Amazon hideaways to chilly highland distribution depots. And a shadowy remnant of the notorious Shining Path rebel army, led by a charismatic man named Artemio, uses its muscle to pocket a fortune in a sinister protection racket. [continues 1380 words]
Bolivia Says the Crop Has Cultural Roots. The U.S. Sees a Drug Boom. CARANAVI, BOLIVIA -- In the past, Bolivian cocaine labs tended to be primitive, makeshift affairs where peasants known as pisa-cocas stomped on coca leaves to produce coca paste. But recent busts of relatively sophisticated cocaine-refining laboratories in the country's jungles have set off alarms about rising drug production here. Many of the labs have links to Colombian narcotics traffickers, officials say. "We're seeing more Colombian and other international traffickers turning up in Bolivia, and that's troubling," said Brad Hittle, an official with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "These are people with a lot of experience, money, connections and know-how." [continues 1115 words]
The Side-Product of Cocaine, Called Paco, Has Devastated the City's Poor Youths. Mothers Have Begun to Fight Back. BUENOS AIRES -- The mothers of the neighborhood known as Ciudad Oculta refer to them as "the living dead." They are the emaciated, hollowed-eyed young men, specters huddled in corners, darting in and out of alleys, unconscious in debris-strewn lots and squalid homes behind the walls that earned this neighborhood the name "Hidden City." Like all children, they once seemed filled with expectations, kicking soccer balls on the windy streets, running off to school with their backpacks, oblivious to the ubiquitous poverty surrounding them. [continues 1404 words]
Closer Ties, Including Joint Military Exercises And A Visit By Rumsfeld, Have Sparked Rumors Of American Plans To Station Troops There ASUNCION, Paraguay -- Are the Americans coming? That question continues to reverberate in this sleepy capital four months after a "courtesy call" by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld unleashed a torrent of speculation about Washington's reputed "secret agenda." U.S. officials have categorically denied having any plans for a military base here, describing the episode as a misunderstanding over ongoing U.S.-Paraguayan military exercises. [continues 1180 words]
Tragedy: Teenager kills himself after his father--a legal U.S. resident for 29 years--is sent to Colombia because of $10 marijuana sale in 1989. Grieving mother struggles with effects of strict new U.S. policy. Gerardo Anthony Mosquera Jr. was a good boy in a tough neighborhood, his parents say. He took his studies seriously, enjoyed sports, stayed away from drugs and worked after school to help support his struggling family, which included three younger siblings and an infant son. [continues 1417 words]
