US Report Says Cocaine Production Is At Its Highest Level On Record

 

BBC: Cocaine production reaches record levels as new trafficking hubs emerge 

Global cocaine production has reached record levels as demand rebounds following Covid lockdowns, a new report has found. 

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation rose by 35% between 2020 and 2021 to record levels. 

Findings suggest new hubs for trafficking have emerged in West and Central Africa. 

The report also said traffickers were using international postal services more often to get drugs to consumers. 

"Globally, the use of parcel and courier services increased significantly during the Covid-related lockdown due to restrictions on passenger flights," the Global Report on Cocaine report said. 

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: The Global Report On Cocaine 2023 is here (link here). 

US Report Says Cocaine Production Is At Its Highest Level On Record  

Cocaine trafficking surges following COVID-19-related slowdown -- UN News  

Cocaine smuggling and production at record high since pandemic retreat -- CNBC 

Cocaine production at record levels, drug seizures rising faster: UN -- Business Insider

'High alert': Cocaine production, smuggling on the rise after pandemic-related slowdown -- NYDaily News

Cocaine 'Super-Cartel' Busted In Europe And Dubai

Ten people were arrested in Belgium, six in France and 13 in Spain. Another 14 people were arrested in 2021 in the Netherlands as part of the same operation, Europol said. Six high-level targets were arrested in Dubai  

Daily Mail: Cocaine 'super-cartel' fronted by British drugs lord is busted with 49 arrested across Europe and Dubai: Cops seize supercars, luxury villas and piles of cash in 'historic' raids 

* Drugs cartel that controlled a third of Europe's cocaine trade has been busted 

* International operation seized 30 tons of cocaine and assets worth £21.7million  

* Spanish police officers have described the gang leader as a 'British national' 

A drugs 'super-cartel' that controlled a third of Europe's cocaine trade has been busted by police, with 49 arrests in countries including France and Dubai. 

The 'historic' international operation seized £21.7million worth of assets, including 30 tons of cocaine and the gang's supercars, luxury villas and piles of cash. 

Spanish police said the leader of the organisation is a 'British national' who fled his former base on the Costa del Sol for Dubai, where the Kinahan organised crime group are based, after a kidnap attempt. He was later arrested in Dubai.  

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WNU Editor: Only £21.7million worth of assets seized?!?!? I would expect more from a cartel that controlled a third of the European cocaine trade. 

Cocaine 'Super-Cartel' Busted In Europe And Dubai  

Police take down "super cartel" said to be behind about a third of Europe's cocaine trade -- CBS/AP  

Cocaine 'super-cartel' busted in Dubai, Europe: police -- France 24  

Operation Desert Light: Europol take down massive cocaine 'super cartel' -- BBC 

Europol seize 30 tonnes of drugs in 'super-cartel' bust -- DW

30 tonnes of cocaine seized in raids against European ‘super cartel’ -- The Guardian

European ‘super cartel’ busted in six countries; 49 arrests, 30 tons of cocaine seized -- FOX News

Massive Heroin Haul From Afghanistan Seized At Indian Port

 

Daily Mail: Enormous three-tonne haul of heroin from Afghanistan worth £2BILLION is seized at Indian port after it arrived via Iran 

* Two Indians were arrested after the heroin was found by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat 

* The heroin was kept in two containers marked as carrying talc which originated from Afghanistan and was shipped from a port in Iran to Gujarat 

* The shipment of heroin was estimated to be worth 200 billion rupees (£2 billion) 

Nearly three tonnes of heroin with a street value of £2 billion from Afghanistan have been seized from a western Indian port in a major bust, officials said. 

Two Indians were arrested after the heroin, which was kept in two containers marked as carrying talc, was found by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Mundra Port in the western state of Gujarat, the anti-smuggling government agency said. 

The consignment - with one container carrying nearly 2,000 kilograms of heroin and another holding nearly 1,000 kilograms - originated from Afghanistan and was shipped from a port in Iran to Gujarat, the DRI said.  

Read more ....  

Update #1: India seizes $3.7 billion Afghan heroin haul amid Kabul takeover chaos (ABC News Australia) 

Update #2: India seizes $3.6b Afghan heroin haul amid Kabul takeover chaos (The Straits Times/Reuters) 

WNU Editor: It looks like the smugglers are trying to take advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan.

Nine Mexican Cartels Are Responsible For Importing Drugs To The U.S. In 2020

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Sinaloa Cartel (in orange) and its rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (in yellow), have the largest presence in US cities 

Daily Mail: REVEALED: How NINE Mexican cartels are responsible for flooding the streets of the United States with drugs - with El Chapo's Sinaloa gang and their rivals CJNG the biggest threats

 * The Drug Enforcement Administration's 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment lists nine Mexican cartels as the major importers of drugs to the U.S. in 2020 

 * DEA reports indicates that Mexican drug cartels 'are the greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States' 

 * The Sinaloa Cartel and its rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, are mentioned as the leaders of the pack 

 * The majority of heroin and fentanyl available in the US is smuggled overland across the south west border 

 * The DEA said that both cartels have held back shipments of methamphetamine to drive up prices in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic 

Nine major Mexican cartels are responsible for flooding US cities with fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana, according to an annual report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. 

The DEA's 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, which was published Tuesday, shows how each of the key players exert their influence over different parts of the US. 

A map shows how El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel and their rivals the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) were the dominant forces in funneling drugs over the Mexico-United States border in 2020. 

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WNU editor: No surprises here. The crisis at the U.S. - Mexican border is being taken advantage of by the cartels .... Biden’s US-Mexico border pullback creating ‘roads for the cartels,’ Arizona sheriff says: report (FOX 10).

Russian Report: Extremists Make Over $350 Billion Annually

Afghanistan has surpassed a record high of opium production, according to the 2014 report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Infographics by TASS

TASS: Extremists make over $350 billion annually from drug production — Russia's drug control

The Russian official named Islamic State, Jundullah and the Balochistan Liberation Army as examples of such extremist groups

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. The annual proceeds of extremist groups from the production of drugs amounts to more than $350 billion, Director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) Viktor Ivanov said at the sixth meeting of the Central Asian anti-drug quintet (Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Iran) in Tehran on Monday.

"Financially, drugs are kind of foreign exchange reserves for the extremist quasi-public groups that are invested in the destruction of global and regional security. Let me remind you that this criminal fund annually launders through the banking system and injects in the criminal network infrastructure more than $350 billion, taking into account the production of cocaine and other drugs," FSKN press service quoted Ivanov as saying.

WNU Editor: $350 billion per year ?!?!?! We all know that drugs are a huge industry .... but is it that huge for militants? I am sceptical.

Mexican Drug Cartels Are Now Using Drones

Photo: Secretaria De Seguridad Pública Municipal De Tijuana

NYMag: Drone Filled With Meth Crashes Near U.S.-Mexico Border

WNU Editor: It is not going to be long before we start hearing stories of bigger drones and bigger payloads crossing the border. My prediction .... with 6 months. And after that .... calls from the White House and Congress to regulate drone traffic.

More News On Reports That Mexico's Drug Cartels Are Now Using Drones

Drone overloaded with meth crashes in Mexican border city -- FOX News/AP
Drone loaded with meth crashes near Mexico-California border -- L.A. Times
The meth-toting drone that crashed in Tijuana -- Washington Post
Photo: Secretaria De Seguridad Pública Municipal De Tijuana -- Mashable
Mexican Cartel Drone Carrying Six Pounds of Drugs Crashes at US Border -- Spuntnik
High crimes: Meth-carrying drone crashes near US-Mexican border -- RT
This Drone Crashed While Trying to Deliver 6lbs of Meth -- Gizmodo

Are Drug Smugglers Getting A Pass From the U.S. Government?

U.S. Forces Unable to Seize Drug Shipments Due to Declining Resources -- Washington Free Beacon

Southern Command is lowest priority command region

U.S. maritime forces are unable to seize almost three-quarters of drug shipments smuggled into America due to declining resources, according to recent comments by the commander of U.S. Southern Command.

Marine Gen. John Kelly on Thursday told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and reporters at the Pentagon that his command does not have the assets to interdict 74 percent of “suspected maritime drug smuggling” into the United States. Kelly leads Southern Command (SouthCom), which covers Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

“I simply sit and watch it go by,” he said.

“I can see the flow,” he added, referring to U.S. surveillance and reconnaissance in the region. “I just don’t have end-game assets.”

Read more ....

My Comment: Another example that illustrates how Washington ignores the big issues at home .... but focuses on places like Ukraine, Afghanistan, etc..

North Korea Is In The Crystal Meth Business

Inside North Korea's Crystal Meth Trade -- Isaac Stone Fish, Foreign Policy

How shamed wives, rogue chemists, and crooked doctors move 'Ice' in the Hermit Kingdom.

I interviewed my first member of the North Korean crystal meth trade in the spring of 2011. My subject was a woman still living inside the country who was desperate to leave. Her family background was somehow shameful, hurting her husband's military career, she told me through an intermediary. And while she heard everyone in bustling, wealthy South Korea was "happy," she lived in a "small city, a dusty city."

Deeply in debt, the woman said she would travel across the border near the city of Yanji, a bleak and oppressing Tijuana, to smuggle contraband to a Chinese trader. They would meet in the middle of the Yalu, the river which runs more than half the length of the 890-mile border between the two countries, frozen during the winter and often laxly patrolled, and she would pass off the products, like North Korean antiques, that she said she carried.

Read more ....

Update #1: US busts North Korean meth smuggling ring -- Global Post
Update #2: Five Charged by DEA for Involvement in North Korean Meth Ring -- Washington Free Beacon

My Comment: North Korea is not the only country with a crystal meth problem .... this drug trade is booming throughout Asia. (see above video)

Africa's Cocaine Hub

Der Spiegel

Africa's Cocaine Hub: Guinea-Bissau a 'Drug Trafficker's Dream' -- Spiegel Online

Guinea-Bissau has become a major hub of cocaine trafficking between Latin America and Europe. But any wealth the West African nation has derived from its middleman status has been offset by increased violence and instability.

João Biague says he only has one way to lose his job: "success." As soon as he manages to seize a shipment of drugs, he admits, "I'll be fired." But "success" is not actually part of the job description of the director general of Guinea-Bissau's judicial police.

Biague has his office in a colonial building slowly turning black from the moisture and humidity. It's located on a dirt street near an athletic field. The potholes are filled with plastic refuse and seashells. A woman is crouching under a ceiba tree and roasting a scrawny ear of corn over a smoldering fire.

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My Comment: A corrupt government. An ideal transit location. Eager workers who are willing to take the risk. Yup .... a perfect place for a drug smuggler.

Pakistan Is Reeling From The Social Costs Of Drug Addiction

A mother sitting beside her 25-year-old son, who is addicted to drugs, in Karachi. Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

The Drugs of War -- Huma Yusuf, New York Times

LONDON — Last week Canadian officials seized 22 kilograms of heroin worth $8.8 million on a flight that originated in Pakistan. Last month Indian Border Security Force officials found 105 kilograms of heroin concealed among bags of cement on a train from Pakistan, one of the largest-ever seizures of contraband in India.

Drug trafficking, like terrorism, is a devastating fallout for Pakistan of the conflict in Afghanistan.

In 1980, there were only 50,000 drug users in Pakistan; by 2011 there were 8.1 million, according to official statistics, and many health experts and social workers think the number is much higher. One reason for the spike is that Pakistan became a major transit route in the 1980s, when trafficking was officially sanctioned in Afghanistan as a way to fund the anti-Soviet mujahedeen.

Read more ....

My comment: Afghanistan has the same problem .... a million plus opium addicts. A friend of mine served one year in Afghanistan with the Canadian military .... the stories and pictures that he has shown me on the impact of heroin addition are truly disturbing.

Is Iran Getting Involved In The Drug Trade?

In Iran, Drug Trafficking Soars As Sanctions Take Bigger Bite -- Washington Post

TURKAN, Azerbaijan — Even as Western sanctions ravage their economy, some Iranians are reaping a cash harvest from an unexpected source: a booming illicit drug industry that law enforcement officials say is producing record quantities of a powerful synthetic drug.

The surge in drug trafficking from a country with one of the world’s highest rates of opium addiction has alarmed police and intelligence officials from Europe to Southeast Asia, where authorities say they are witnessing a flood of high-quality methamphetamine of Iranian origin.

Read more ....

My Comment: Iran has one of the worst addiction rates in the world .... you would think that getting involved in the manufacture and distribution of synthetic drugs would be the last thing that they would do. But Iran is a 'black hole' in the global anti-narcotics campaign, and who knows what some members in their government may actually be doing.

Guess Who Is The West's Loyal Ally In The War Against Drugs

The West’s Stalwart Ally In The War On Drugs: Iran (Yes, That Iran) -- New York Times

HIRMAN, Iran — Sitting next to the half-open door of a Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopter, the general who leads the Islamic Republic’s antinarcotics department pointed toward the rugged landscape of Iran’s volatile southeast, where its border meets those of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“This is where the drug convoys for years crossed into our country, almost with impunity,” Brig. Gen. Ali Moayedi said in Persian. Below him, sharp-edged mountains gave way to desert lands scarred for mile after mile by trenches nearly 15 feet deep and concrete walls reaching a height of 10 feet.

Read more ....

My Comment: Talk about strange bedfellows. Hard drugs .... like alcohol .... is one vice that is a big no-no for the mullahs. Unfortunately .... even with some of the harshest penalties in the world .... the trade is still flourishing in this part of the world.

Ten Notorious Global Drug Kingpins

Pablo Escobar Photo: AP

Top 10 Most Notorious Drug Kingpins -- The Telegraph

With the arrest of Daniel "El Loco" Barrera, The Telegraph looks at 10 of the most notorious drug lords.

Pablo Escobar AKA: "The World's Greatest Outlaw"

Country of operation: Colombia

Downfall: While being chased by the Columbian National police in 1993, the fugitive attempted to escape by running across the roofs of adjoining houses to reach a back street but was shot dead.

The Colombian narcoterrorist and drug lord was declared by Forbes magazine in 1989 as the seventh richest man in the world. With an estimated personal fortune of $25 billion, the ruthless kingpin is said to have controlled four-fifths of the world's cocaine market. A family man who experienced a short career in Columbian politics, Escobar was also responsible for smuggling 15 tons of cocaine a day into America. His campaign of against challengers resulted in the assassination of 30 judges, over 400 police officers, and the bombing of Avianca Flight 203, which he believed contained the Prime Minister at the time.

Read more ....

My comment: No "happy" retirement plans for these guys.

UN Report: 27 Million Problem Drug Users Worldwide

UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and President of the General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser at the thematic debate on drugs and crime as a threat to development. Photo: J. McIlwaine

Annual Report Forecasts Illegal Drug Trends Around The World -- Deutsche Welle

The UN's office on drugs and crime (UNODC) issued its annual report on Tuesday. It aims to present a snapshot of drug use and production around the world.

Around 230 million people, roughly five percent of the world's adult population, are thought to have used an illicit drug in 2010. Some 27 million adults are problem drug users.

Read more ....

Update #1: 27 million problem drug users worldwide: UN -- AFP
Update #2: UN Says 27 Million Problem Drug Users Worldwide -- Radio Free Europe
Update #3: Global illicit drug users to rise 25% by 2050, says UN -- The Guardian

WNU Editor: An excellent graphical illustration of world drug use is here.

The UN world wide drug report is here.

Narco Sub With $180M Of Cocaine Seized By The U.S. coast Guard

U.S. Stops "Narco Sub" With $180M Of Cocaine -- CBS News

MIAMI - The U.S. Coast Guard says its crews helped stop a semi-submersible craft filled with $180 million of cocaine in the western Caribbean.

According to CBS-4 in Miami, the so-called "narco submarine" was used by Colombian drug cartel members to export cocaine into the United States. (See video of the Coast Guard interdiction below).

The Coast Guard said Monday that with help from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection airplane, its cutter located the submarine-like craft Tuesday off the coast of Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. The Coast Guard, FBI dive teams and the Honduran navy had been searching for the vessel for more than 10 days.

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My Comment: This is not the first time a narco-sub has been stopped. Makes one realize that there must be more out there, and the money must be huge for them to do this.

The Cocaine Trade Now Runs The Length Of Central America

Source: NPR, STRATFOR. Credit: Stephanie d'Otreppe/NPR

Central America Struggles With Drugs -- Washington Post

GUATEMALA CITY — Fueled by a cocaine trade that runs the length of Central America, the region is in danger of being overwhelmed not only by street gangsters but also sophisticated criminals with ties to elite members of society, U.N. officials warned Thursday.

As Central American leaders concluded two days of high-level meetings to negotiate a regional security plan and to seek money from donor nations, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a report documenting the high cost of drug trafficking in Central America, an impoverished backwater it described as ignored.

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My Comment: Mexico's 'drug contagion' is now becoming a fact of life in Central America. I guess the money is too good and tempting for the poor and the elites to ignore.

World Drug Production In Decline?

Cannabis, Cocaine And Opium Production In Decline, UN Report Finds -- The Guardian

Containing drug trafficking proving effective but global rise in illicit use of synthetic drugs for 'legal highs' cause concern.

Global opium production fell by 38% in 2010 and cocaine cultivation continued to decline, according to the annual UN report on the world drug market.

The report said that while the global markets for cocaine, heroin and cannabis had declined or remained stable, the production and illicit use of prescription opioid drugs and new synthetics known as legal highs, which mimic the effects of traditional drugs, had increased sharply.

Read more ....

Update: UN: Sharp drops in opium, coca production in 2010 -- Yahoo News/AP

My Comment: Will this trend in declining drug production continue .... for some reason I have my doubts. The UNOCD web site is here, and the full report is here.

Cocaine Airlines Is Now In Business

Image from The Telegraph

Cocaine Smugglers Buy Old Jets To Fly Across Atlantic -- Jerusalem Post/AP

NEW YORK — Federal investigators are piecing together details of an audacious new trend in drug smuggling: South American gangs are buying old jets, stuffing them full of cocaine and flying them across the Atlantic to feed Europe's growing coke habit.

At least three gangs have struck deals to fly drugs to West Africa and from there to Europe, according to U.S. indictments. One trafficker claimed he already had six aircraft flying. Another said he was managing five airplanes. Because there is no radar coverage over the ocean, big planes can cross the Atlantic virtually undetected.

"The sky's the limit," one Sierra Leone trafficker boasted to a Drug Enforcement Administration informant, according to court documents.

Read more ....

Update #1: US: Gangs buy jets for trans-Atlantic coke flights -- AP
Update #2: Smugglers form 'cocaine airlines' -- Press Association
Update #3: South American drug gangs use cargo planes stuffed with cocaine to evade anti-narcotics forces -- New York Daily News/AP
Update #4: South American gangs flying vast quantities of cocaine to Europe -- The Guardian
Update #5: US uncovers cocaine jets -- News24

My Comment: The money involved must run in the hundreds of millions .... correction .... billions.

A New Front On The War On Drugs

Photo: A U.S. Coast Guard cutter, guided by aircraft from Customs and Border Patrol, captured this so-called "narco sub" - packed with cocaine - off the coast of Colombia last month. Coast Guard

Sinking To New Lows: Drug Cartels Take Trafficking To The Sea In Custom-Built, Cocaine-Laden 'Narco Subs' -- Houston Chronicle

Drug traffickers are spending $1 million a pop to build boats that look like submarines and can carry 4 tons of cocaine for 2,000 miles without refueling.

Nicknamed "narco subs," they're made to sneak loads up from South America to Mexico, where the drugs are offloaded and taken overland into the United States.

Read more ....

My Comment: I have posted stories about the use of subs by drug traffickers before .... this is just an update on what has been happening on our coastlines for the past few months.

Interestingly, the sentence that best captures the mindset of these trackers is the last line in this Houston Chronicle Post ....

...."They are courageous," he said. "A little bit of courage; little bit of stupidity; little bit of desperation; a lot of criminality - interesting mix."

Did Drug Money Save Our Financial System?

Drug Money Saved Banks In Global Crisis, Claims UN Adviser -- The Guardian

Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions.

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

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My Comment: Call me a skeptic. Government regulates everything .... if there is proof to the assertion that drug monies helped in supporting the financial system during the height of the credit crunch, they should then release this information. But they have not for the simple reason that they have no evidence to prove this point.