The Drug Trade
Posted under The Drug Trade
Drug Rehab Industry in Mexico Targeted by Gangs
Earlier this month a convoy of automobiles drove up to the front door of a drug rehab center in Torreon, Mexico and unloaded a gang of gun-toting men. The men entered the drug rehab facility and went room by room, shooting everyone they came across. The men left just as quickly as they came. When all was said and done, thirteen people (both drug rehab patients and employees) had been killed. A year prior, nineteen people were killed at a drug rehab center in the neighboring city of Chihuahua.
Posted under The Drug Trade
Physicians, Law Enforcement Officials Can Identify Ingested Drugs with New 3-D Imaging
Radiologists may be part of a new weapon in the war against illegal drug trafficking.
New 3-D scanning and enhanced CT scanning can help radiologists locate drugs and drug materials that have been ingested by perpetrators, assisting law enforcement agencies in stopping drug circulation. Additionally, the new technology could help reduce the injuries associated with ingesting drug packets by identifying the materials sooner in emergency rooms and other settings, according to research results included in a ScienceDaily report.
The enhanced CT scanning and associated 3-D scanning can help officials work around increasingly complex drug wrapping and ingesting methods that are making the materials hard to locate in traditional x-ray formats. Basic x-rays have been a part of searches for drugs or drug materials for years, especially in incarceration centers, but are hindered by inaccuracies. The CT scanning that now uses 3-D imaging provides almost total accuracy.
Patients with ingested drug packets can suffer almost immediate death if a packet spreads the substance into the body, which is typically smuggled as heroin or cocaine. Emergency room physicians will also be better equipped to save lives with the more advanced and more accurate imaging to spot drug packets before they leak or burst.
Findings from the study on CT scanning with 3-D imaging for drug smuggling were part of the presentations of the 2011 ARRS Annual Meeting.
Posted under The Drug Trade
Texas Jet-Ski Murder Blaned on Mexican Drug Traffickers
It’s the story of a vacation gone horribly wrong. David Hartley was shot and killed in front of his wife last week during a trip to Lake Falcon in Texas; the lake flows atop the Mexico-Texas border. The thirty-year-old man is believed, at least by some, to have been killed by gunman connected with the Mexican drug trade.
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Dangerous Drug Trafficker Captured in Mexico City
Law enforcement officials in Mexico recently apprehended a thirty-seven year old Texas man who is suspected of being one of North America’s most powerful drug lords. The United States government had previously offered a $2 million reward for his capture; he is believed to be among the top five drug traffickers in Mexico.
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United States’ Role in Drug Wars
In all the talk about the level of violence the Mexican drug business contributes to the U.S., it seems not enough fingers point at the center of demand, users in the United States. If the demand here wasn’t so strong, would the situation in Mexico be as bad as it is right now?
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Rhode Island Coffers Benefit from the Illegal Drug Trade
Officials in Providence, Rhode Island recently seized almost $150,000 in assets from a suspected drug dealer. The man, Thomas Tootell, claims he got the money from legitimate work or in the form of wedding gifts and is suing to get his money back.
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How Drug Trafficking Funds Terrorism
Drug trafficking and terrorism, long recognized by the United Nations Security Council as being linked, is a growing issue of concern to member countries. Consider the sheer magnitude of the illegal drug trafficking trade in terms of annual revenue – an estimated $360 billion. Terrorist groups, well-funded from a variety of sources, most underground, and branching out into every country in the world through secret cells, are an increasing threat to the stability of the United States and other democratic nations. Despite the difficulty in assessing the links between drug trafficking and terrorism, the evidence is there to indicate that funds from the illegal drug trade are making their way into terrorists’ hands.
Posted under The Drug Trade
Manuel Noriega Convicted of Laundering Drug Money in France
The past few decades have not been good to 76-year old former Panamanian dictator Manual Noriega. For the past twenty years he has been serving a sentence in the United States for aiding Colombian drug cartels that were importing drugs into the US. Upon his release from US custody this spring, however, he was not a free man; instead, he was extradited to France. He recently went on trial there for charges of money laundering. Sources claim that Noriega used drug trafficking profits to buy luxury apartments in Paris and then hid what was left in French banks.
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U.S. Demand for Meth a Boon to Mexico’s Violent Drug Lords
Let’s face it, Americans are addicts. We’re addicted to television, the Internet, cigarettes, carbohydrates, alcohol and drugs. Find someone who isn’t addicted to something, and you’ve found a very odd duck, indeed. That’s why peddlers of addictive substances and things, such as drug dealers, love us. If nothing else, Americans are great consumers.
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U.S. Places Sanctions on Guiana-Bissau to Fight Drug Trafficking
Drugs flooding into a neighborhood can take a peaceful area and turn it into a war zone. In some countries, the problem is growing much bigger than simple neighborhoods. In fact, in West Africa, the drugs there are all-consuming.
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