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MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge. The law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution; the law goes into effect on Friday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Wildfire investigators in California are looking for marijuana growers tied to a Mexican drug cartel whom they suspect ignited a blaze that has charred more than 87,000 acres of a national forest. The La Brea Fire, which erupted August 8 in the Los Padres National Forest in the remote Santa Barbara County mountains northwest of Los Angeles, is believed to be the first major wildfire in the state caused by drug traffickers, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Turner said on Monday. A joint statement issued Saturday night by the Santa Barbara County sheriff's office and the...

Tegucigalpa, Honduras The report on drug trafficking, issued by the office of investigations of the US Congress, made some of the Chavist officials in Caracas explode. The report revealed that the trafficking and distrubution of drugs is aided by corruption in the government of ...Hugo Chavez and by the lack of cooperation with the anti-drug policies of the US. According to the report, Caracas has created a "permissive atmosphere" for insurgent organizations like FARC, by whom the drugs produced in Colombia are brought to Venezuela and from there distributed to the world. “According to US officials, this permissive atmosphere is...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The son of actor Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas could face life in prison for selling large amounts of an illegal drug over a three-year period before his arrest late last month, court records show. Cameron Douglas, 30, a sometimes actor who appeared with his father and grandfather Kirk Douglas in "It Runs in the Family," is accused of selling tens of thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine, according to a complaint unsealed this week. Douglas was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on July 28, and had charges against him read in Manhattan federal court the next...

MEXICO CITY – Police raided a church service in western Mexico and arrested a man known as "The Truck" who is suspected of moving a half ton of crystal methamphetamine into the United States each month, federal officials said Monday. Authorities detained Miguel Angel Beraza and another suspect after surrounding a church in Apatzingan in drug-plagued Michoacan state, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the Federal Police's anti-drug unit. About 40 others at the Mass were brought in for questioning. DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said Beraza is a high-ranking lieutenant in the drug cartel known as La Familia and called...

Note: The following text is a quote: July 30, 2009 ANOTHER DEAD IMU DRUG RUNNER Both Reuters and AFP report the recent demise of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan activist Nemet Azizov in a firefight with Tajik forces in the Rasht valley. Mr. Azizov was allegedly involved in the production and/or trafficking of heroin produced from opium grown in nearby Afghanistan. Posted on 30 July 2009 @ 20:14 GMT

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: Alleged Mexican Cartel Leaders, Associates Targeted in Newest Effort to Combat Drug Trafficking Organizations Today the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced coordinated actions against the Gulf Cartel/Los Zetas drug trafficking organization, now known as the "Company," in the latest in a series of efforts by the U.S. government to neutralize and dismantle this violent cartel. Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sanchez, Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano and Miguel Trevino-Morales, high-level Mexican leaders of the Company and 15 of their top lieutenants, have been charged in U.S. federal courts with drug trafficking-related crimes. Also...

Eric Holder makes quiet visit to mosque to meet with Muslim Americans July 17, 2009 Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. made a well-publicized visit to Los Angeles this week to announce stimulus grants to help fight drug trafficking and to help the victims of domestic violence. But in a quieter event not announced to the news media or public, Holder stopped at a mosque to meet with Muslim American youths. “The point was to engage the Muslim community here in Los Angeles and make sure they understand this administration’s commitment to work with that community,” Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller...

MCALLEN, TX—A United States Probation Officer has been arrested and charged with drug trafficking and bribery, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Armando Mora, 36, of Edinburg, Texas, assigned to the Rio Grande City office of the United States Probation Office, was arrested and charged on Wednesday, July 15, 2009. He is expected to make an initial appearance before United States Peter Ormsby on Thursday, July 16, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. Mora is accused of of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and bribery. According to allegations in the criminal complaint, Mora received bribe payments...

Note: The following text is a quote: Alleged Afghan Narcotics Trafficker Ordered Detained Pending Trial on U.S. Drug Charges Haji Bagcho, aka Haji Bagh Chagul, an Afghan national, was ordered detained today by Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia while he awaits trial on U.S. narcotics charges. Bagcho was charged in a two-count indictment unsealed June 24, 2009, with one count of conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin knowing and intending that it would be imported into the United States and one count of distribution of one kilogram or...

BOGOTA – The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States. "Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol. "We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," he added. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in...

Note: The following text is a quote: Obama Administration Announces National Strategy to Reduce Drug Trafficking and Flow of Bulk Cash and Weapons Across Southwest Border Today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske released President Obama’s strategy to stem the flow of illegal drugs and their illicit proceeds across the Southwest border and reduce associated crime and violence in the region. The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy directs federal agencies to increase coordination and information sharing with state and local law enforcement agencies, intensifies national...

Mexico’s drug cartels have displayed a Houdini-like knack for escaping the vise of the ongoing Mexican and American government crackdowns. Despite bolstered American border defenses, cartel smugglers become ever more inventive and audacious moving their drug loads over. Despite President Felipe Calderon’s best efforts to clean up the corruption in his military and civilian law enforcement services, drug mafia paymasters continue to co-op them at all ranks. This is all old news. What has yet to be reported anywhere, until now, is that some of Mexico’s most venal drug trafficking organizations, chief among them the Gulf Cartel, have engineered the...

'Record' Afghanistan drugs bust International and Afghan troops have killed 60 militants and made a record drugs haul in an operation in southern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

COLUMBUS, N.M. – This dusty little border town with almost no visible means of support has been seeing something of a boom in the past year: Brand-new Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades with flashy wheel rims are parked just off the bleak main drag. Homes are selling quickly, sometimes for cash. The source of this sudden wealth? An influx of Mexican drug smugglers, investigators say. The smugglers are fleeing the Mexican army's occupation of the town of Palomas, on the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border fence, and settling in Columbus, where there has been a law enforcement vacuum. The...

Man is one of Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers MEXICO CITY — Mexican police on Wednesday arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers. Sauceda Gamboa appears on a list of 24 alleged drug traffickers published by prosecutors in March. Authorities have offered rewards of up to $2.1 million for each suspect. Together with a list of 13 lower-ranking drug suspects, the group covers Mexico's most powerful cartel operators. With Sauceda Gamboa's arrest Wednesday at a home in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, authorities have arrested five...

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 22, 2009 / (CNA) -- Various Mexican bishops have rejected an offer by government officials to provide them with special protection against threats being made by drug traffickers, saying security officials should protect all citizens equally. Bishop-elect Salvador Rangel of Huejutla said the state governments of Guanajuato and Michoacan offered to provide security, but the offer was not accepted. He said the lives of priests have the same worth as any other citizen who is in danger. The bishop-elect’s comments came as reports surfaced that a priest in the town of Cuitzeo received death threats from...

Pretty sure that drug-smuggling-criminals kill people, not their guns... MEXICO CITY | Meeting face-to-face with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama on Thursday said the U.S. is to blame for much of Mexico's drug violence, and he set up a major congressional gun-control battle by calling on the Senate to ratify a treaty designed to track and cut the flow of guns to other countries. Mr. Obama said he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons but that it is not likely to pass Congress. Instead, he called for the Senate to ratify a decade-old hemispherewide treaty that...

BOGOTA — Colombia's most wanted drug lord was cowering like a dog under a palm tree when he was captured Wednesday in a jungle raid involving hundreds of police officers, the defense minister said. Daniel Rendon Herrera, a far-right warlord known as "Don Mario," was taken in shackles to the capital to await possible extradition to the United States. Operating in a banana-growing region bordering Panama, he commanded a private army of hundreds and shipped some 100 tons of cocaine to the United States, authorities said. President Alvaro Uribe described Rendon, 43, as "one of the most feared drug traffickers...

Latest Crimes of Islamic Iran's Hezbollah thugs - plotting massacres in Egypt   Prosecutor accuses Hezbollah of plotting attacks in Egypt (Roundup) Monsters and Critics.com - ‎Apr 8, 2009‎ Cairo - Egypt's public prosecutor on Wednesday accused Hezbollah of sending operatives to Egypt to carry out attacks in the country and to smuggle weapons ... roundup... Cairo accuses Hezbollah of planning Egypt attacks Reuters http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKL8213444 Egypt Accuses Hezbollah of Plotting Attacks Voice of America http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-04-08-voa48.cfmEgypt 'hunts Hezbollah suspects' BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7996665.stm News Analysis: Egypt-Hezbollah standoff dents Egypt-Iran relations Xinhua http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/13/content_11180887.htm --- That besides bloody hands in: Somalia, IraqAfghanistanLebanonUS - Mexico...