U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi joined DEA Leadership, and the men and women of the DEA El Paso Field Division, on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 to announce the single largest seizure of fentanyl pills in DEA history.

During an enforcement operation the last week of April, agents from the DEA Albuquerque District Office seized 2.7 million fentanyl pills in New Mexico’s largest city. The seizure was part of an ongoing, monthslong investigation, in which federal authorities also arrested 16 individuals and seized drugs, cash, firearms, and luxury vehicles across multiple states, while also dismantling one of the largest and most dangerous drug trafficking organizations in U.S. history.

“This historic drug seizure, led by the DEA, is a significant blow against the Sinaloa Cartel that removes poison from our streets and protects American citizens from the scourge of fentanyl,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This Department of Justice will continue working with our law enforcement partners to dismantle every cartel network operating illegally in the United States.”

To provide some context, this single seizure of 2.7 million fentanyl pills equates to nearly 1.5 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl taken out of circulation. In total, DEA seized more than three million fentanyl pills and 11.5 kilograms of fentanyl powder.

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A qualified pilot used his light aircraft in a bid to smuggle cocaine into the UK.

Pilot Anastasios Balian, 52, and accomplice Errol McCardo Weir, 48, admitted trying to bring 30kg of the Class A drug into the country, following a National Crime Agency investigation.

On 20 March this year, they were stopped by Border Force officers at North Weald airfield in Epping, Essex, after landing from Belgium via Calais.

Officers searched the small plane and discovered a concealment had been built into the rear seats. Inside it were 30 1kg blocks of cocaine with a street value of about £2.4m.

Weir, a photographer, of Shifford Path, Lewisham, south London, admitted smuggling the drugs last month when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Today (Friday 16 May), Balian, who runs a company conducting aerial surveys, also admitted the same count. They will return to court for sentencing on a date to be fixed.

A WhatsApp chat was discovered between the offenders’ phones. It contained a link to a news story with the headline ‘Gang use small aircraft to drop Cocaine into Dorset’.

Balian, of Milton Court, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, joked in another message that the gang must have watched the Tom Cruise film ‘American Made’, which is a plot based on light aircraft cocaine trafficking into the US.

NCA operations manager Paul Orchard said:

“Anastasios Balian used his expertise and apparent legitimacy to enable this attempted importation of Class A drugs.

“These substances destroy lives.

“The organised crime groups that traffick them don’t care about that, they only care about money. Balian and Weir were part of that crime group.

“Working with key partners such as Border Force, the NCA will continue to do all it can to fight the threat of Class A drugs.”

Penina Giffen of the Crown Prosecution Service said:

“This was an audacious operation in which cocaine was carefully concealed in a light aircraft bound for Essex.

“Balian and Weir were caught red handed with cocaine which, coupled with damning digital evidence, gave them little choice but to plead guilty.

“The illegal drug trade has devastating impacts on individuals and communities, and it is essential those who seek to exploit and profit from this trade are brought to justice.

“This case is also an excellent example of the close working relationships between Border Force, National Crime Agency and CPS colleagues, whose collaborations are invaluable at cracking down on organised crime groups.”

16 May 2025

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Le vraquier grec Ceci (42 665 tpl) immatriculé aux Îles Marshall est arrivé au large de Montevideo, en Uruguay, le 20 avril, en provenance des Émirats arabes unis et du port de Bandar Imam Khomeini en Iran. Le 25 avril, il a accosté au port intérieur de San Lorenzo, en Argentine, où il chargeait 46 000 tonnes de graines de tournesol pressées et devait naviguer vers Amsterdam.

La police a trouvé au total 16 paquets étanches soigneusement emballés, et à l’intérieur 379 paquets. Les tests ont confirmé la présence de 469,5 kilos de cocaïne.

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Douaniers et gendarmes ont découvert cette cargaison de cocaïne, dissimulée dans la coque d’un vraquier libérien en provenance du Brésil.

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Sept personnes ont été interpellées en Dordogne, Gironde et Charente-Maritime, mercredi 14 mai, dans le cadre d’une enquête pour trafic de drogue et détention d’armes. Quatre hommes ont été déférés et devront s’expliquer sur la découverte d’une voiture bourrée d’armes et de drogue dans le petit bourg de Minzac, en Dordogne.

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La ville de Fontaine, en Isère, a lancé ce mercredi 14 mai une opération « de sécurité et d’occupation citoyenne » destinée à déloger dans la durée les trafiquants de drogues de leurs points de deal, en occupant l’espace.

Fontaine,  cette commune de 23.000 habitants, contiguë de Grenoble, a déploré ces derniers mois deux fusillades, qui ont fait respectivement un mort le 15 septembre et quatre blessés le 2 mai dernier.

« Une expérimentation »

C’est dans ce quartier « gangrené » par les trafics, car bien desservi par la ligne de tram qui relie Fontaine à Grenoble, que sera déployée l’opération avec un volet sécurisation des espaces et un autre de « réappropriation de l’espace public » avec des échanges avec les élus, des voisinades, une braderie etc., selon la municipalité.

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