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The Coast Guard seized 208 tons of cocaine last year and started this year...
The amount of cocaine seized by the US Coast Guard declined slightly in 2019 from the previous fiscal year, marking the second straight year of declines.But major busts on the high seas remain a...
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A wave of violence in a major Mexican border city is being directed from...
Authorities say a wave of violence in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city bordering El Paso, Texas, was directed from inside a state prison in the city.Imprisoned members of the Mexicles, a Juárez gang...
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Spanish police are trying to refloat a narco sub that carried 3 tons of...
Spanish police are investigating what appears to be an ocean-going narco-submarine that sunk in the waters of Galicia in the country's northwest.Galicia has long been an entry point for cocaine...
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A legend about Colombia's narco subs appears to be becoming a reality
The presence of narco subs around Spain has long been rumored, but the discovery of one off Spain's northern coast in late November appears to be the first of its kind.Almost all narco subs intercepted...
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The war on drugs in Afghanistan 'has just been a total failure,' the US's top...
October was the 18th anniversary of the start of the US-led war in Afghanistan, and the US is still trying to negotiate its way out of the conflict.The two-decade war has cost the US billions of...
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The architect of Mexico's war on cartels was just arrested in Texas and...
Genaro Garcia Luna, who was Mexico's public-security secretary between 2006 and 2012, was arrested in Texas on Monday.Garcia Luna, the architect of Mexico's campaign against organized crime in the late...
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Brazil has already seized record amounts of cocaine this year, and the busts...
In the first 10 months of 2019, Brazil seized almost 50% more cocaine than it did in all of 2018.The vast majority of the cocaine seized this year was found at just four ports — a sign of widespread...
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Drug smugglers found a backdoor to Europe — through Venezuela
A Colombian drug smuggler who pleaded guilty in a US court in November used Venezuela's Margarita Island as a way station for drug shipments.Colombian cocaine arrived to the island and was then...
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A landmark drug trial in the US is leaving a trail of blood south of the border
Since the October conviction of the Honduran president's brother in the US on drug charges, several people tied to the case have been slain.The trial revealed everything from government collusion with...
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10 predictions for what organized crime groups will do in the Western...
Political turmoil shook Latin America in 2019, much of it stoked by corruption and the organized-crime groups that feed it.Trends suggest those criminal groups will continue taking advantage of...
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A US warship sailed along Venezuela's cost to gather intelligence and send a...
A US warship sailed along the Venezuelan coast in a freedom-of-navigation operation, the top US military commander in the region told lawmakers this week.Such operations by the US are not uncommon, but...
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Inside Mexico's drug war, in the words of the traffickers fighting it
Drug-related violence has riven Mexico for more than a decade, with police and troops squaring off against ever more powerful and ever more violent criminal groups.The men who make up those criminal...
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Here's what 2020 could have in store for the criminal groups dominating Mexico
The organized-crime landscape in Mexico has only grown more complicated and more violent since the government launched a militarized response in 2006.The groups dominating that landscape have changed,...
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Desperate residents in Mexico's heroin heartland are using kids with guns to...
Residents in Guerrero, one of Mexico's most violent states, have taken up arms to defend their communities against gangs.That military-style training has now been extended to children as young as 6, a...
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Warren Buffett's son is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help...
Colombia has struggled to crack down on the increasing cultivation of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine.Now Howard Buffett, son of multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is seeking to help...
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Brazil's most powerful gang is going international — here's how First Capital...
The First Capital Command has risen in power in Brazil, going from a prison gang to one of the country's most powerful criminal groups.Now PCC is continuing its expansion into neighboring Paraguay....
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Inside the massive DEA operation targeting one of Mexico's most powerful cartels
Early-morning raids across the country Wednesday were the culmination of a months-long US federal law-enforcement operation against one of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups: the Jalisco New...
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Brazil's gangs are flooding Europe with cocaine
Brazil has become a major way station for cocaine heading from South America to Europe.In the process, Brazilian gangs have become major players in that trade, partnering with European criminal groups...
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The coronavirus is putting the squeeze on Mexican criminal groups' finances
International lockdowns meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus are also having an affect on criminal groups in Mexico.Those restrictions have hindered access to everything from counterfeit luxury...
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Why a measly 5-ton cocaine bust is a sign of a much bigger problem in Costa Rica
Authorities in Costa Rica on February 15 uncovered 5 tons of cocaine hidden in a container of ornamental plants awaiting shipment to Europe.It was the largest drug bust in Costa Rica's history, but it...
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