Archives du mot-clef crime & drugs

NARCOTRAFIC (The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking): How Meth, Cocaine, and Heroin Move Around the World

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onudc1By Keegan Hamilton

Diplomats and top officials from governments around the world gathered last week at United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss what to do about the global drug problem. Over the course of four days and multiple discussions, the assembled dignitaries vowed to take a more comprehensive approach to the issue than in years past — but they also decided to keep waging the war on drugs.

The « outcome document » adopted during the UN General Assembly’s special session (UNGASS) calls for countries to « prevent and counter » drug-related crime by disrupting the « illicit cultivation, production, manufacturing, and trafficking » of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other substances banned by international law. The document also reaffirmed the UN’s « unwavering commitment » to « supply reduction and related measures. »

Yet according to the UN’s own data, the supply-oriented approach to fighting drug trafficking has been a failure of epic proportions. Last May, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued its 2015 World Drug Report, which shows that — despite billions of dollars spent trying to eradicate illicit crops, seize drug loads, and arrest traffickers — more people than ever before are getting high.

READ: https://news.vice.com/article/drug-trafficking-meth-cocaine-heroin-global-drug-smuggling

READ: https://news.vice.com/article/drug-trafficking-meth-cocaine-heroin-global-drug-smuggling

READ: https://news.vice.com/article/drug-trafficking-meth-cocaine-heroin-global-drug-smuggling

READ: https://news.vice.com/article/drug-trafficking-meth-cocaine-heroin-global-drug-smuggling

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Meth, Murder, and the DEA’s Mysterious Deal With the ‘Most Dangerous Man in the World’ | VICE News

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Meth, Murder, and the DEA's Mysterious Deal With the 'Most Dangerous Man in the World'

By Keegan Hamilton

April 18, 2016

The mercenaries had gathered in Phuket, a tropical resort island off the west coast of Thailand, to discuss a job. They were supposed to safeguard 300 kilos of Colombian cocaine on its way from the Bahamas to New York and kill two people: One a DEA agent, the other his snitch, a ship’s captain who was leaking information about drug loads. Joseph Hunter, a burly former US Army drill sergeant nicknamed Rambo, briefed them on the assignment.

« It’s just like a military mission, » Hunter told the men, four ex-snipers from the US, German, and Polish armed forces. « This is real shit. You know, you see everything. You see James Bond in the movie and you’re saying, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ Well, you’re gonna do it now. Everything you see, or you’ve thought about, you’re gonna do. »

Hunter made sure the men knew what they were getting into, warning them about the consequences of stealing from their new employer.

« If you steal money, » he said, « they’re gonna kill you. »

The problem, Hunter explained, was that there were always people in their line of work who got greedy. He’d heard guys promise not to steal before, only for them to find a pile of cash and give into the impulse to take it and disappear.

« If they don’t find you, they’re gonna get your family, » Hunter said. « They’re gonna get your children, your mother, your father. I don’t know. Whoever they can get, they’re gonna get. ‘Cause yeah, you might be able to run and you might be able to hide, but they’re gonna get somebody. Everybody says that [they won’t steal] and a lot of people steal fucking money. When you’re standing there with a fucking million dollars, you’re like, ‘I can just take this million dollars and go away.' »

To hammer home the point, Hunter told them stories: How he’d once shot a guy in the hand, waterboarded another, and thrown a third overboard at sea to recover stolen money. He bragged about how easy it was to get away with murder in Africa. « It’s not like CSI, » he joked. « They don’t have all that shit. » Sometimes, instead of killing, his boss just set people up for prison. He’d done it before in the Philippines, where they had cops on their payroll.

« My boss, he doesn’t kill everybody, because it’s just not worth the trouble sometimes, » Hunter said. « But if you take, he does kill people. »

read more: https://news.vice.com/article/paul-le-roux-joseph-hunter-rambo-the-dea-meth-and-cocaine

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BELGIUM: A Ton of Cocaine Seen Floating at Sea Collected Off Coast

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 La plage d'Ostende, sur la côte belge
 By Pierre Longeray

March 3, 2015 | 8:40 pm

Authorities in Belgium pulled in a massive catch on Saturday after they recovered a ton of cocaine that was spotted floating 15 miles off the Belgian port of Ostend in the North Sea.

A pilot boat that transports personnel to and from ships noticed duffel bags laden with 16 sealed packages containing the drug while conducting maneuvers in the area. Maritime police used a tugboat with a crane to collect the contraband bring it ashore. The investigation has since been handed over to the prosecutor in Bruges.

The loot weighed in at more than 2,100 pounds and has an estimated street value of 50 million euros ($56 million). To evade customs, smugglers have been increasingly tossing illegal goods over the sides of shipping vessels to be retrieved by accomplices trailing behind. This is the third such discovery in recent weeks — 2,650 pounds of cocaine were found in the sea in December, along with another 1,770 pounds in January.

« As the chance of getting caught in the ports increases, criminals are trying out other, sometimes novel, methods in order to avoid the classic controls, » Belgian magistrate Ken Witmas remarked to local newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. « More and more traffickers are trying it and this is a growing phenomenon with us. »

The « queen of Belgian seaside resorts, » as Ostend is affectionately known in Belgium, has become a transit point for French dealers who go there to buy drugs smuggled in from the Netherlands.

Former undercover French customs officer Marc Fiévet infiltrated several major international drug rings during his time in the field, during which he developed close knowledge of their distribution methods.

READ + https://news.vice.com/article/a-ton-of-cocaine-seen-floating-at-sea-collected-off-coast-of-belgium

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