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Needle exchanges prevented 32,000 HIV cases: reportBy Brendan Trembath for AM Updated 6 hours 30 minutes ago A new report has found needle and syringe exchange programs have directly prevented tens of thousands of cases of HIV and hepatitis C. There are nearly 1,000 sites around the country where clean needles and syringes are handed out to drug users. Researchers from the University of New South Wales, who authored the report, say it is also saving on health costs. For every $1 spent on needle and syringe exchange programs, state and federal governments save $4. In the heart of Sydney's...

EL PASO, Texas — An alleged Mexican gang leader named to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list may have surgically altered his face and changed his finger prints to hide his identity, federal investigators said Wednesday. Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo was added earlier this week to the wanted list that includes the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Boston crime lord James "Whitey" Bulger. "From what I've heard, it's my understanding he may have had ... plastic surgery and manipulated his finger prints," said Samantha Mikeska, the FBI's lead investigator in a 5-year-old probe of Ravelo's Barrio Azteca gang. If Ravelo...

A 46-year-old Burlington woman accused of teaching her teenage son how to shoot heroin was charged Monday in connection with his death from an overdose. Patricia L. Strosina was charged with intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child resulting in death in connection with the death of her 16-year-old son Raymond Strosina, according to a criminal complaint. The boy was found by his father in the father's home in the Town of Waterford on Sept. 14, slumped over a desk in a basement computer room, according to the complaint. A syringe, a burned spoon and other drug paraphernalia were...

A Nebraska military officer who has battled Hurricane Katrina and al-Qaida will spend his final deployment searching for a sticky black substance that might be the key to victory in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Thomas Brewer will soon head to Kabul, capital of the war-torn country, where he will serve as a military adviser to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as it tries to slow the production and movement of crudely processed black tar heroin. ...Military leaders recognize that insurgent groups in southern Afghanistan use drug money to buy weapons, upgrade their communication systems and bribe politicians... Brewer has spent most...

THE kids weren’t all right. They lived in the same comfortable Long Island town and were barely in their teens when they took their first hit of marijuana or sip of alcohol, propelling them on dark journeys they couldn’t seem to escape. Within a couple of years, they were in heroin’s grip. “My parents had no idea,” said one of them, a 17-year-old girl who, like other formerly addicted youths interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of her past drug use. “My mom thought I was smoking a lot of weed and taking diet pills, because who would’ve...

As the drug has poured into the country from Afghanistan in recent years, Russians' relative ignorance about its dangers has taken a huge toll, especially on the young.The young man named Anton is a member of Russia's "lost generation." He's the son of middle-class, college-educated engineers; he studied at a good university and became a truck sales manager in Moscow. He's also a 28-year-old heroin addict. In the years since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan triggered a sharp increase in poppy cultivation, Russia has been flooded with heroin. The dope has crept along a drug trail stretching from Afghanistan through...

SNIPPET - Quote: Pak raids unravel Taliban-drugs link ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities arrested 13 Islamist militants in separate raids that police said on Monday foiled major terrorist attacks and provided clues to how drug sales help fund the Taliban.

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.

The girlfriend of actor Cameron Douglas was arrested Monday for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin to him in an electric toothbrush, court papers show. Kelly Sott was busted after passing the toothbrush to Douglas while he was under home detention following a court hearing on his drug charges. She was arrested at the Hotel Gansevoort in Manhattan where she was staying. Douglas, 30, the son of actor Michael Douglas, was arrested at the same hotel last week and faces a methamphetamine-dealing charge. Douglas had been on house arrest at the New York home of his stepmother, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and went...

The girlfriend of actor Michael Douglas' troubled son, Cameron, was arrested after she tried to pass him 19 bags of heroin -- hidden in an electric toothbrush -- at the posh Manhattan pad owned by his mother Diandra Douglas. SNIP Cameron Douglas "appeared to be very concerned about when the tooth brush would be delivered," according to court papers.

An alleged drugs dealer appeared in court on Friday after "holding out" for more than two weeks before finally going to the toilet. Damien Ankrah, aged 27, was arrested on July 13 on suspicion of transporting heroin by placing the drugs in a condom and swallowing them. But it was almost August before he went to the toilet and police had to use new legislation to get the evidence. The exceptional effort led Dyfed-Powys Police to warn drugs dealers not to try the same thing. Ankrah was arrested in Haverfordwest and detained at Pembroke Dock police station, where officers told...

HANOVER TWP. - A man was arrested by township police Tuesday night on charges he sold fake heroin to an undercover officer. Billy Paul Rogowski Jr., 21, address unknown, was charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver a non-controlled substance, and one count each of possession of a non-controlled substance, theft, possession of a small amount of marijuana and resisting arrest. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $20,000 bail. According to the criminal complaint: Township police and the state Office of Attorney General's Luzerne County Drug Task Force arranged to buy...

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

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 29 (UPI) -- The United States' top anti-drug agency will substantially boost its presence in Afghanistan to check opium trafficking, the Taliban's main revenue source. "One year ago, we had 13 personnel in Afghanistan working counternarcotics," Jay Fitzpatrick, the DEA's assistant regional director based in Kabul. "We're in the process of increasing the number of personnel to 81." The U.S. network reported the DEA also plans track the top 10 to 20 narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan with the help of Afghan authorities.

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...

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2009 – Afghan and coalition forces detained several suspected Taliban militants overnight during an operation designed to disrupt Taliban bombing and rocket attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. In the province’s Nad Ali district, a combined force patrolled near the village of Marjeh, to compounds where intelligence sources reported a known Taliban commander was located. While clearing the compounds, the force encountered a threat. Officials did not provide details of the threat, but said it was “eliminated” after several escalation-of-force measures. The force completed the search without further incident, detained a handful of...

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2009 – Afghan and coalition security forces seized weapons and drugs and captured seven suspected militants during two operations in southern Afghanistan yesterday. Afghan forces, advised and assisted by coalition forces, uncovered a significant drug and weapons cache during operations in Oruzgan province’s Shahidi Hasas district. A search yielded 200 pounds of black-tar heroin, 100 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate, homemade explosives, numerous bomb-making materials, three machine guns and small arms, along with Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army uniforms. A number of women and children were discovered in the area and escorted to safety. No...

fter nearly 20 years of quietly handing out free, clean needles to drug users on Berkeley's streets, the city's needle exchange is coming out of the shadows. In April, a year ahead of its 20th birthday, the Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution became a registered charity, a certified nonprofit group and last year was able to get a state grant that increased its yearly budget to more than $100,000. "We've really grown a lot in the last year," said NEED's 22-year-old director Christina Muller-Shinn. "When we got the money from the state, we were able to hire staff and before we...

Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania (AHN) - Two elderly sisters from Monroe County, Pennsylvania were arrested for allegedly distributing drugs after being arrested on April 14. Elizabeth Marie Grube, 70, and her 65-year-old sister, Elaine Volkert, are facing drug charges after investigators seized 400 bags of heroin worth more than $8,000 and more than $2,000 in cash from Grube's home.Police also seized 988 bags of heroin with a street value of $20,000 and approximately $1,600 in cash from Volkert's home, also on the 1000 block of Ehler Street. In addition, police confiscated quantities of Oxycontin and marijuana during the search.Grube and Volkert had...

LANCASTER [CALIFORNIA] - Poppies popped up Wednesday at Lancaster City Park. So did painted antelopes and ferocious-looking dinosaurs - all in preparation for this weekend's annual California Poppy Festival. "We've been planting poppy plants all week and will be planting about 500 plants today," said Jeff Campbell, recreation supervisor for Lancaster's Parks, Recreation and Arts Department. "And we'll probably be planting through Friday. "The tents for the festival started going up Monday and have been going up non-stop every day so far this week," Campbell said. "All told, we'll have about 175 tents. In the northwest area of the festival...

The Israeli heroin market, worth half a billion dollars in 2008, is largely supplied by channels running through south Lebanon, according to estimates by the Anti-Drug Authority. Israel Police, who were able to stop only a fraction of the drug smuggling in the past year, said a significant portion of the funds made their way to Hizbullah.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0903/090324losangeles.htm Task force dismantles heroin ring linked to Los Angeles street gangs Multi-agency probe takes more than $2.5 million in heroin off area streets LOS ANGELES - Federal and local authorities today announced the culmination of a seven-month investigation leading to the break up of a major heroin distribution ring that supplied the narcotic to 11 violent street gangs in East Los Angeles and the surrounding area. So far, the probe has resulted in 88 arrests and the seizure of more than 20 kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of $2.5...

THOMPSON — Sheriff's deputies and investigators have broken a heroin distribution ring that dished out narcotics across more than half of Sullivan County. A total of five men and women were arrested Wednesday night following a three-month investigation, during which undercover police purchased decks of heroin from street dealers. Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said the dealers were selling heroin in towns that stretched from Monticello to Livingston Manor. The alleged dealers were pushing a variety of heroin that they called "Obama." Chaboty said dealers are known to stamp the glassine wax paper that carries the heroin with brand names — like...

SNIPPET: "(LAWFUEL) - A 20-year-old Malaysian woman faced court in Melbourne today charged with attempting to import approximately 400 grams of heroin into Australia concealed within her bra." SNIPPET: "A female Customs officer conducted a frisk search of the woman which revealed inconsistencies around the woman’s bra and a package containing a white powder was subsequently located. Further testing of the white powder revealed approximately 400 grams of heroin concealed inside the package in the woman’s clothing."

TREBIL, Iraq – Approximately 50 kilos of heroin was seized at the Trebil Port-of-Entry after it was discovered concealed in a BMW sedan traveling from Iraq to Syria on Jan 2. The outbound-traffic Z Backscatter Van operator noticed irregularities while X-ray scanning the vehicle and referred it for further examination. The driver of the vehicle attempted to bribe the Customs Police Officer with $10,000, but the ploy was unsuccessful. The ZBV system used by Iraq’s POE personnel can be operated in drive-by or stationary mode and produces X-ray images of vehicles as they pass. One or two operators can conduct...

<p>LOS ANGELES - The 20-year-old son of veteran rapper Dr. Dre died in August from an overdose of heroin and morphine, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said on Friday.</p>

TWELVE more children are being groomed to carry out suicide attacks against British forces in an escalation of the Taliban’s new dirty war. As Gordon Brown, in Afghanistan yesterday, praised the bravery of three Royal Marines killed by a 13-year-old suicide bomber, we disclose that the attack is just the start of a concerted campaign to drive out British troops. Intelligence sources say 12 Pakistani children are being groomed at a secret camp in the mountains where their controllers give them heroin as part of their brainwashing techniques. The campaign is designed to sap morale and turn public opinion against...

1st Video of N. Korean Poppy Fields Unveiled DECEMBER 09, 2008 07:45 The first video clip on poppies growing en masse in a district controlled by the North Korean military in Taehung, South Pyongan Province, was unveiled yesterday. The Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, a Seoul-based civic group, released the 20-minute clip at a digital video exhibition for North Korean human rights at Gwanggyo Gallery in Seoul, saying it confirms the North Korean military-led “white bellflower project” as claimed by North Korean defectors. The clip, which the group said it received from a spy...

Over 40 Murders Reported this Week CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - New details on a deadly discovery across the border from El Paso. This morning police in Ciudad Juarez say at least 12 masked gun men opened fire inside an upscale seafood restaurant and killed at least eight people. The attack comes a day after seven men were found executed in a school soccer field in an upper class neighborhood in Juarez. In all, 40 murders were reported over the holiday week along the border near El Paso. Police say the men were armed with AK-47 and fired off more than...

We gave up on the Swiss back in May when they decided that their Constitution gives plants the right not to be arbitrarily killed. Now we have more lunacy from the same bunch of fruitcakes. More . . .

Trafficking has traits in common with terror enterprises, he said.

Istanbul Police said 222 kg of heroin, 184 kg of hashish, 2 kg of cocaine and thousands of synthetic pills were confiscated in 141 operations in several parts of the metropolis.

BELLINZONA, Switzerland – Two brothers from Kosovo were convicted Thursday of running a massive drug smuggling ring that prosecutors said supplied Western Europe with up to half of its heroin. Ragip and Kemal Shabani channeled 1.5 tons of heroin through Europe from the mid-1990s until 2003, when they were shut down, prosecutors said. They used a small town in Kosovo as their base with branches in Macedonia, Albania, Spain and the Czech Republic, according to the Federal Criminal Court. The trial — considered one of Switzerland's largest-ever drug cases — was held under high security in the southern town of...

An illegal drug ring in Pennsylvania was selling 'Obama' printed packets of heroin out of a home with John McCain campaign signs on its porch, police said.The packets of drugs apparently circulating the streets of Edwardsville, Kingston and Wilkes-Barre had stamps that read, "Obama '09

KINGSTON – One of three types of heroin allegedly sold by five people busted by authorities Wednesday night was called OBAMA with an imprint of the presidential candidate on packets, said Frank Noonan, regional director for the state Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control. "I've never seen a stamp like that before," Noonan said during a news conference Thursday morning. Noonan said the five people arrested were part of a heroin distribution ring in Edwardsville, Kingston and Wilkes-Barre. Five people - Christopher Allen, 25, also known as Face, Jennifer Catanzariti, 24, Derek Reich, 20, Jessica...

Two Delaware residents are giving new meaning to the term "pushing" Obama, according to criminal drug charges filed Thursday. Fifty-two bags of heroin in bags stamped both with letters spelling out OBAMA and an image in the likeness of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama were confiscated following a routine car stop on Interstate 95 in Upper Chichester, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

Excerpt: SEOUL - South Korean police said Friday they have arrested members of a major drug-trafficking ring with suspected links to Afghanistan's Taleban insurgents. ‘Police have rounded up a drug-trafficking ring involving Afghans andPakistanis who are suspected of being linked with the Taleban,’ a National Police Agency spokesman told AFP. ‘They are suspected to trying to smuggle raw materials for heroin production into Afghanistan,’ he said. Police said two Afghans, three Pakistanis and four Koreans tried to use South Korea as a shipping point for several tons of acetic anhydride destined for southern Afghanistan. The chemical is heated with morphine,...

Police in South Korea say they have arrested a number of South Asian men suspected of involvement in drugs rings linked to Taleban insurgents. The men were suspected of trying to smuggle raw materials for heroin production into Afghanistan, a police spokesman said. In one raid, officers seized about 12 tons of acetic anhydride. When mixed with morphine extracted from opium poppies, the chemical produces heroin. Separate raids A total of nine people had been arrested in South Korea, the French news agency AFP quoted police as saying. Two men, an Afghan and an Indian, were arrested on Wednesday when...

The Joint Bazaar, an island in the river Panj, separating Tajikistan/Afghanistan. Merchants display foodstuffs. The real business is exchanging weapons for heroin. Mohammad Aslam: “We trade a kilo of heroin for ten Kalakovs (Kalashnikov AK-74s) or 15 Kalashnikovs.” “the Taleban give us a kilo for just five or six, everybody benefits.” “When we get one Kalashnikov we sell it for $200, but the gun will fetch 50% more in Jalalabad.” “We have old friends in the government, everybody gets a cut.” Mir Alam: “I am just looking for a good customer. It isn’t important to us who it is. We...

Amy Winehouse looks in desperate need of a slap-up meal as she takes a break from a recording session yesterday. The troubled-star's stringy leg muscles and bulging veins betrayed just how painfully thin the young Rehab singer has become.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium, an essential ingredient of heroin. The vast majority of Afghan/Pakistan-refined heroin is sold in Western Europe and Great Britain to feed their growing number of heroin addicts. Only between 5 percent and 15 percent reaches the U.S. The production is so immense that it has even affected Afghan food supplies. According to the International Monetary Fund, opium production is worth $1 billion to Afghan farmers. A whopping 12 percent of the Afghan population is involved in opium production. Opium continues to be the major source of funding for militants in the Northwest...

6th Graders To Get Drug TestsPOSTED: 10:41 am EST March 7, 2008 UPDATED: 5:59 pm EST March 7, 2008 ROYAL OAK, Mich. -- A new drug testing system could soon take place in Royal Oak starting in September. Superintendent Thomas Moline said he will be taking a proposal to the school board that will allow voluntary and random drug testing for students as young as 11 years old. Moline said nobody can predict who's going to use drugs and he wants to include middle school and elementary school students. He said it is part of the Save Our Youth Task...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Life!) - The Grateful Dead, the San Francisco cult rock band that has played at political events since the 1960s, will reunite on Monday for the first time in four years to rally support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a spokesman said on Friday. Band leader Jerry Garcia died in 1995. Surviving members have played together occasionally since then, most recently in 2004. On Monday, original members Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir will play at a San Francisco theater a day before California's primary. "They have agreed to reunite for this one-time-only event in...

The notorious former opium kingpin Khun Sa died in Rangoon last Friday at the age of 74, a close aide said yesterday. Khun Sa, who surrendered to the Burmese government in January 1996, had suffered from heart disease, diabetes, partial paralysis and high blood pressure, former aide Khuensai Jaiyen said. His relatives in Rangoon held a cremation ceremony for him yesterday morning before casting his ashes into the sea, he said. Some of his relatives and associates, such as groups in Chiang Rai's Ban Therd Thai, may also make merit for him next month, Khuensai said in a phone interview....

    Report ... Richard Brunstrom   Police chief: Legalise heroin   Published: Today     A CONTROVERSIAL police chief has called for the legalisation of all drugs, including heroin, in a report published today. Police chief constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom, says that police are currently in a battle against drugs which they cannot win. He says the current system has “not worked well” and that “illegal drugs are now in plentiful supply, and have become consistently cheaper in real terms over the years.” In the report to North Wales police authority, he described the Misuse of...

Dan Rather is Not an Ex-Marine Dan Rather cannot call himself an Ex-Marine, and he must stop referring to himself as such. To be a Marine, a recruit must graduate from boot camp, and Dan Rather did not; he was medically discharged before graduation. According to him, he was medically discharged from the Marine Corps due to a medical disability caused by a childhood case of rheumatic fever. I went through Marine Corps boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego about the same time Dan Rather was there, and here’s my take on his brief tour...

'Cheese' Drug Coming to East Texas09-06-07 East Texas schools are on notice Thursday for a dangerous, cheap drug targeted toward your children. It's called "cheese," and it's already being blamed for 21 deaths in the Dallas area. Local law enforcement told KLTV they are sure it's coming, and that they are already watching out for it. "Heroin is showing its ugly head again. It hasn't been here for years and years," said Smith County Sheriff JB Smith. JB, his entire department and other East Texas law enforcement agencies are on the lookout for "cheese". "It is a given. It's going...

Drug-addiction services have also grown massively. In our society, every problem calls forth its equal and supposedly opposite bureaucracy, the ostensible purpose of which is to solve the problem. But the bureaucracy quickly develops a survival instinct, and so no more wishes the problem to disappear altogether than the lion wishes to kill all the gazelle in the bush and leave itself without food. In short, the bureaucracy of drug addiction needs drug addicts far more than drug addicts need the bureaucracy of drug addiction. The propaganda, assiduously spread for many years now, is that heroin addiction is an "illness"....

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 Heroin charges tossed Government dismisses case against two brothers in California's largest heroin seizure. Two others admit role in drug-trafficking operation. By KIMBERLY EDDS The Orange County Register SANTA ANA - Federal charges against two Mexican brothers arrested in the largest seizure of heroin in California history were dropped Tuesday, a month after a judge ruled the search that recovered the nearly $6 million in drugs violated the U.S. Constitution. Two others admitted their role in the drug-trafficking operation and are awaiting sentencing. The Valentine's Day raid grabbed national headlines. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials boasted...

A 39-year-old grandmother accused of selling heroin on the streets of a Los Angeles suburb with her 11-year-old granddaughter as a lookout has been arrested on drug and child endangerment charges, police said on Tuesday. Undercover officers watched for two weeks as Martha Gutierrez Novas sold heroin at a bus stop in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, clutching a brown and white Chihuahua and often with her granddaughter at her side, a police spokesman said. "The granddaughter acted as a lookout, standing at the corner of the building looking, I assume, for police officers," said Sgt. Paul LeBaron, a...