The World Wide War on Drugs #5 - Het begin van het einde?

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Op woensdag 5 december 2012 17:02 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Nederland staat de laatste tijd bol van de anti-drugs propaganda:

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Ruim dertig arrestaties en forse drugsvondst in Den Haag

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Een langlopend drugsonderzoek in de regio Den Haag heeft dit jaar 31 arrestaties van verdachten, ruim vijfduizend xtc-pillen en ruim 150 kilo cocaïne opgeleverd. Het onderzoek begon vorig jaar al en inmiddels zijn vier arrestanten veroordeeld, meldt de politie vanochtend.

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Mexico's top cop resigns ahead of shake-up

Plagued by rumours of corruption, Luis Cardenas Palomino has posted an open letter of resignation on Facebook.

Luis Cardenas Palomino, one of the most senior Mexican federal police officials, has rejected charges of corruption as he announced that he will resign on December 31.

"After 23 years of public service, I have made the decision to move into the private sector," Cardenas, the top cop in charge of regional security, wrote in an open letter posted on Facebook on Saturday.

Cardenas Palomino faces no charges of wrongdoing, but under his watch there was a shoot-out in June between police in the Mexico City airport that killed three officers, and an attack by federal police in August on a US diplomatic vehicle that wounded two US agents.

"As a public official, I have been exposed to criticism, much of it empty and unfounded," including charges of corruption, he said.

"I leave this institution with my head held high, without having committed any act of which I must repent," Cardenas Palomino wrote.

The federal police is being reorganised as part of a major security overhaul by Mexico's new president, Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mexico's congress passed a law last week that closed the ministry of Public Security, a pillar in the fight against drugs under former president Felipe Calderon.

The federal police will now be under the control of the ministry of interior.

Pena Nieto, who took office December 1, runs Latin America's second biggest economy that is also engaged in a relentless drug war that has killed more than 60,000 people in the last six years.

In June federal police smuggling drugs from Peru killed three agents who attempted to arrest them at the Mexico City international airport. Cardenas Palomino eventually replaced all 348 officers responsible for airport security.

In August, federal police opened fire on on what turned out to be a car with diplomatic plates. The attorney general's office has charged 14 federal police officers with attempted murder, while five police commanders have been
accused of lying in the case.

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Colombia's "Widow of the Mafia" Assassinated

Lorena Henao Montoya, known as the "Widow of the Mafia," was murdered after assassins on a motorcycle strafed her car with bullets in the province of Armenia, just the latest chapter in a widening drug war.

Henao Montoya, age 43, was the widow of Ivan Urdinola, and the sister of Orlando Henao Montoya, alias "the Overall Man." Both men were heads of the now-defunct Norte Del Valle Cartel (NDVC), which according to US authorities smuggled more than 500 tons of cocaine from Colombia. Urdinola died in prison in February 2002 under suspicious circumstances, perhaps poisoned. His wife Lorena had herself been imprisoned on drug-related charges, after being arrested in Panama in 2004. She was been released in May 2011 after serving a sentence for conspiracy, fraud and bribery. Her daughter with Urdinola, Emma, aged just 23, is in prison for murder.

InSight Crime Analysis

There are various theories as to the motives behind the killing of Lorena Henao. One is that relatives of her ex-husband wanted properties that she controlled. Another theory is that some of her relatives in the powerful Henao criminal clan, who make up part of the Machos gang which now works with the Urabeños, saw her as an obstacle to business.

National Police Chief General Jose Roberto Leon Riaño said the police were working on the theory that she as killed as part of pending debts and problems with the Rastrojos.

Her murder is almost certainly linked to the wider drug war along the Pacific coast after the surrender to US authorities of Javier Calle Serna, alias "Comba." Comba has delivered to US authorities much of the internal workings of the Rastrojos, the powerful drug syndicate that he led. This has resulted in widespread violence in Rastrojos strongholds with rival traffickers settling accounts and seeking to take over territory, as the criminal gang implodes.

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Burgemeester Van der Laan: 'Dit was wild west'

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De dodelijke schietpartij van zaterdagavond in de Staatsliedenbuurt in Amsterdam verdient de kwalificatie 'wild west'. Dat zei burgemeester Eberhard van der Laan van Amsterdam zondag in het tv-programma Buitenhof. Ook zijn twee motoragenten 'van heel dichtbij' beschoten, maar zijn ze er 'gelukkig goed van af gekomen'.

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Mexico Considers Legalizing Marijuana

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The Mexican Congress was presented a bill in November that would legalize marijuana use, production, and sale from within the country. Government leaders told Reuters that they are one of multiple Latin American countries unhappy about the U.S. policy of prohibition:

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Italian council chief blocks filming of anti-mafia TV series in Naples suburb

Angelo Pisani refuses to allow cameras into Scampia for follow-up to Gomorrah film, criticising 'exaggeration' of problems

The northern Neapolitan suburb of Scampia is notorious for its drug wars, clan battles and ever-growing casualty list. But the long-suffering area was at the centre of a rather different kind of conflict at the weekend after a war of words erupted between its local politicians and Italy's most prominent anti-mafia campaigner over the filming of a follow-up television series to the 2008 hit film Gomorrah.

In what he said was an attempt to protect the area and its inhabitants from disproportionately bad publicity, Scampia's local council chief, Angelo Pisani, will not allow cameras into the neighbourhood for the making of the upcoming drama, which is to be called Gomorrah after Roberto Saviano's chilling exposé of the Neapolitan underworld, which in turn spawned Matteo Garrone's film.

"It is time to say enough of the exploitative use of Naples and this area in particular," Pisani told the Corriere del Mezzogiorno. "The constant exaggeration – only of the negative things, which exist, it cannot be denied – solves nothing; on the contrary, it worsens the problems and confirms the stigma."

The mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris, said that while he played no part in Pisani's decision, he supported it. "We are tired of seeing Scampia reduced … to a place of conquest for the warring Camorra, as if nothing else existed in Scampia beyond the drug-pushing and the feuding clans," he said, likening the Gomorrah effect on the local area to a "negative media brand" that he claimed had left locals "exasperated".

To Saviano, however, the Naples-born writer and scourge of the Camorra, this smacked of little more than "pure, sly censorship" aimed at deflecting attention from the problems of Scampia and politicians' inability to solve them.

"How can you want to block the recounting of the contradictions of a place which, actually, should be at the forefront of national interest every day?" he wrote in a savage column for La Repubblica. Saviano, who has played a supervisory role in the 12-part series, accused local politicians of "shifting attention from the problem to the recounting of the problem". He added: "When nothing changes because of incompetent management, it is better [for politicians] that the organs of the press, writers' pens and directors' TV cameras remain silent, switched off, idle and still."

Filming for the television series, the work of production companies Fandango and Cattleya for Sky Italia, is set to begin within weeks. Saviano's book, published in 2006, and Garrone's subsequent film, were credited with exposing the work of the powerful Neapolitan mafia to the world.

But Scampia, scene of continuing bloody turf wars between rival Camorra factions over multimillion-pound drug markets, remains deeply troubled. Last week, one of the area's most notorious fugitives, Antonio Mennetta, 28, was arrested in a villa near Salerno. On the run from murder and criminal conspiracy charges since September, he was described by police as the head of the powerful Girati clan of Scampia.

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Op zaterdag 5 januari 2013 17:15 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

Inside Story Americas - Has Bolivia's coca-growing scheme worked?

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Bolivia Says They Have Evidence That US Is Plotting To Destabilize Nation

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“There is so much evidence to hand over to the President of the USA to say to him: Stop harassing the Bolivian government, stop politically cornering and ambushing us!” Quintana stressed. He added that investigations into drug-trafficking and human rights abuses would reveal a “permanent battle” waged by the US to impede progress in Bolivia.

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The country’s US ambassador was ejected in 2008 after being accused of plotting against the Bolivian government by President Evo Morales. The US quickly followed suit, removing its Bolivian ambassador.

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A significant bone of contention in these tensions is drug-trafficking in Bolivia. A damning report released by the American government last year ranking Bolivia, along with Venezuela and Burma, as “failing demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.”

President Morales denied the findings, accusing the US of hypocrisy and calling the illicit drugs trade with Latin America the US’ “best business.”

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Bolivia scores coca leaf victory at UN

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Bolivia says that it has been re-admitted to the UN's anti-narcotics convention after persuading member states to recognise the right of its indigenous people to chew raw coca leaf, which is used in the making of cocaine.

Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, had faced opposition from Washington in his campaign against the classification of coca as an illicit drug.

"The coca leaf has accompanied indigenous peoples for 6,000 years," said Dionisio Nunez, Bolivia's deputy minister of coca and integrated development, on Friday. "Coca leaf was never used to hurt people. It was used as medicine."

The leaf was declared an illegal narcotic in the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, along with cocaine, heroin, opium and morphine and a host of chemical drugs.

Bolivia withdrew from the convention a year ago and said it would not rejoin unless coca chewing was decriminalised.

The country's condition for rejoining the convention met resistance from 15 countries, including the United States and the rest of the G8 group of industrial nations, according to UN spokeswoman Arancha Hinojal.

But the objections received by the United Nations ahead of Thursday's midnight deadline fell far short. In order to block Bolivia's return to the convention a full third of its signatories - or 63 - needed to object.

Among nations objecting were Germany, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Britain, Japan, The Netherlands and Portugal. Notably, neither Peru nor Colombia, the world's two other cocaine-producing nations, filed objections. Nor did any other South American nation.

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Decriminalise drugs, inquiry by cross-party peers says

The possession and use of all illegal drugs should be decriminalised, a cross-party group of peers has said.

The least harmful should be regulated and sold in licensed shops, with labels detailing risks, the group concluded.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform (APPG) said criminal sanctions did not combat drug addiction, and only marginalised users.

A recent call by MPs for a royal commission on drug decriminalisation was rejected by the prime minister.

Mr Cameron's official spokesman said: "The prime minister's very strong, clear view is that the approach we currently have is the right one and is working."

The APPG - comprising two Conservatives, two Labour peers, one Liberal Democrat and four crossbenchers - took evidence from 31 experts and organisations, including the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

While the supply of the most dangerous substances should remain banned, users caught with a small quantity of any drug should not be penalised, it said.

"The Misuse of Drugs Act is counter-productive in attempting to reduce drug addiction and other drug harms to young people," said group chairwoman Baroness Meacher.

The 1971 act was in desperate need of reform, the group said.

'Relatively safe'

"What we're saying is there are drugs a great deal safer than alcohol and tobacco," Baroness Meacher told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Citing "legal highs" available as substitutes for ecstasy, she said: "If those much safer drugs were provided - say, in a chemist, very carefully labelled - at least you'd know what was in it.

"At the moment 60 million ecstasy tablets are sold every year to young people, all through criminal gangs and the illegal dealers.

"What we're saying is if young people are going to buy these things, is it not better that they know exactly what is in them? They will not be contaminated because they will be provided through legal channels. And the young people will in fact be relatively safe."

In support of decriminalising the use of all drugs, the report made reference to the model in Portugal, where there has been a fall in the number of young addicts under a form of decriminalisation.

The group said: "Some young people will always want to experiment and they are at real risk if they can only buy the less harmful drugs from the same dealers who are trying to push the most harmful ones.

"The illegal dealers also have a clear incentive to adulterate their product to increase their profits."

The chief executive of the charity DrugScope, Martin Barnes, said: "Today's report adds yet further weight and support for a review of drug legislation and the Misuse of Drugs Act.

"DrugScope supports the recent call by the Home Affairs Committee for a Royal Commission - which has the potential to secure cross-party support - to look at options for reform, including decriminalisation.

"While there is positive evidence of an overall decline in drug use, the drug market and related harms is changing, not least the emergence of so-called 'legal highs'. The emphasis should be on public health, prevention and education but it is also right to question whether current legal frameworks and approaches to enforcement are effective in addressing drug use and harms."

The drugs charity Release welcomed the report by the APPG and said: "The evidence shows that decriminalisation will reduce the harm related to drug use.

"The research we have published as part of our campaign calling for decriminalisation shows that drug use hasn't significantly increased in any of the countries that have already taken this measure."

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Drug Abuse Resistance Education

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The D.A.R.E. program is consistent with the "zero-tolerance orthodoxy of current U.S. drug control policy." According to researcher Dr. D. M. Gorman of the Rutgers University Center of Alcohol Studies, it supports the ideology and the “prevailing wisdom that exists among policy makers and politicians."[40] It also meets the needs of stake holders such as school districts,[41] parents, and law enforcement agencies. "D.A.R.E. America also has been very successful in marketing its program to the news media through a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign that highlights its popularity while downplaying criticism."[29]

Psychologists at the University of Kentucky concluded that "continued enthusiasm [for D.A.R.E.] shows Americans' stubborn resistance to apply science to drug policy."[42]

Marsha Rosenbaum, who headed the West Coast office of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy reform organization, provided an opinion for a 1999 Village Voice article, "In D.A.R.E.'s worldview, Marlboro Light cigarettes, Bacardi rum, and a drag from a joint are all equally dangerous. For that matter, so is snorting a few lines of cocaine." D.A.R.E. "isn't really education. It's indoctrination."[43] Rosenbaum also stated, "Part of what makes D.A.R.E. so popular is that participants get lots of freebies. There are fluorescent yellow pens with the D.A.R.E. logo, tiny D.A.R.E. dolls, bumper stickers, graduation certificates, D.A.R.E. banners for school auditoriums, D.A.R.E. rulers, pennants, D.A.R.E. coloring books, and T-shirts for all D.A.R.E. graduates."[43]

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Drug policy must change, urges police chief [VIDEO]

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The government's drugs strategy in England and Wales is not working because it focuses too much on criminal prosecutions, a police chief has told the BBC.

Tim Hollis of Humberside Police says responsibility for drug policy should be moved from the Home Office to Health.

His words come on the same day as the British Medical Association called for addicts to be treated the same way as people with any other illness.

Mark Easton reports.

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Legalization's Biggest Enemies

Meet the drug warriors working to roll back hard-won advances in marijuana policy

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The marijuana legalization initiatives that triumphed in Washington and Colorado this past fall faced surprisingly little organized opposition. Money tells the story: Washington's pro-legalization initiative I-502 raised more than $6 million dollars from supporters, while the campaign against it pulled less than $16,000. In Colorado, meanwhile, proponents of Amendment 64 raised more than $2 million dollars, outdoing opponents, who raised about half a million. The anti-drug lobbyist groups that came out en masse against California's legalization initiative Proposition 19 in 2010 were hardly visible in either state, partly because the prison-industrial complex wields less political power there.

So what happens now? The biggest immediate threat to legalization in Washington and Colorado is the federal government, but even the feds might be hard-pressed to stomp out reform. "While there are actions the federal government and its U.S. Attorneys could theoretically take to – in the short term – impede the full implementation of a legal retail cannabis market in Colorado, Washington, and potentially elsewhere, the reality is that federal officials ultimately lack the manpower, public support, and as a consequence, the political will to – in the long term – turn back cannabis legalization," says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The genie is already out of the bottle, and it cannot be put back in."

But before marijuana legalization spreads from Washington and Colorado to other states, it will have to get past a group of hardened drug warriors, many of whom have developed a personal interest in maintaining prohibition. While most of these ideologues lack the authority to actually change laws, their larger purpose is to maintain the marijuana propaganda machine and push back against pro-legalization rhetoric. Here are the top five people threatening to halt the state-by-state legalization domino effect that many pot activists hope is coming soon:

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3. Michele Leonhart

Employees in what has been called the "arrest and prosecution industry" from the Drug Enforcement Agency down to local police chiefs and district attorneys often rely on the drug war not just for their paychecks, but their sense of purpose. As the DEA's chief administrator, Michele Leonhart is in charge of making sure the fight is on, regardless of where the facts lie. At a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing this June, Leonhart revealed the department's rigidity when she repeatedly, absurdly refused to acknowledge that marijuana is less harmful than other drugs, like heroin. Video of the exchange between Leonhart and Representative Jared Polis (D-Colorado) quickly went viral. The head of America's top drug agency simply refused to acknowledge what most Americans accept as simple truth: That different health risks are associated with different substances. Rather than make a fact-based case for DEA policy, Leonhart revealed the great lengths to which her organization will go to avoid conceding any ground.

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War On Drugs Has Not Been Worth The Costs: Poll

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Only one in five Americans think that America's war on drugs has been worth the costs, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.

According to the new poll, 53 percent of Americans say that the war on drugs has not been worth the costs, while only 19 percent say it has been. Another 28 percent are not sure. Among political independents, the drug war is even less popular. The term "costs" in the survey was not defined, so respondents could have been considering both qualitative and quantitative costs of the war on drugs.

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The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted Jan. 14-15 among 1,000 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, though that inherent variation does not take into account other potential sources of error, including statistical bias in the sample. The poll used a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance. Additional crosstabs for the poll are available here.

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Senate Judiciary Chair Declares Defeat In War On Drugs

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The Senate’s most senior member lamented the utter failure of the so-called “War on Drugs” and other draconian criminal justice policies Wednesday morning. During an address on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 2013 agenda, Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed alarm over high rates of imprisonment, harsh mandatory minimum sentences and federal crackdowns of marijuana laws legal under state law. “We have imprisoned people who should not be there and we have wasted money that should be spent on other things,” he said.

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Call off war on drugs, leader of Guatemala tells the west

Otto Pérez Molina says regulated narcotics market must be introduced to forestall threat to democracy from drug cartels

The west's "war on drugs" has failed and continuing with prohibition will only cost more lives, the Guatemalan president, Otto Pérez Molina, declares in an interview in the Observer.

In a further sign that the global consensus on drugs is fragmenting, Pérez Molina will use a debate at this week's Davos forum in Switzerland to attack the international community for its support for prohibition, and to call for a regulated narcotics market.

"I believe western countries fail to understand the reality that countries such as Guatemala and those of Central America have to live in," said Pérez Molina. "There has been plenty of talk, but no effective response. I believe, ultimately, that this is due to a lack of understanding on the part of western countries."

He said western leaders must look beyond their domestic agendas. "A message should be sent to the leaders of the countries with the biggest drug markets. They must think not only of… the context of their country, but of what is happening in the world, in regions such as Central America, where this destruction, this weakening of democracy, is happening. They must be open to recognising that the struggle against drugs, in the way it has been conducted, has failed."

Up to 400 tonnes of cocaine are transited through Guatemala each year, up from seven tonnes in 2008, because US-led operations in the Caribbean and the Pacific have prompted the cartels to seek alternative trafficking routes.

Pérez Molina said the cartels now pose a serious threat to the Guatemalan state. "Drug traffickers have been able to penetrate the institutions in this country by employing their resources and money," he said. "We are talking about the security forces, public prosecutors, judges. Drug money has penetrated these institutions and it becomes an activity that directly threatens the institutions and, therefore, the democracy of countries."

He said the cartels were getting stronger. "The flow of arms towards Central America from the north and deaths in our country have grown."

He does not favour full legalisation of narcotics but is arguing for the introduction of a regulated drugs market. His comments come shortly after two US states, Colorado and Washington, voted to legalise marijuana. He predicted that attitudes within the US government would see the country soften its stance on prohibition.

"There is going to be a change away from the paradigm of prohibitionism and the war against drugs, and there is going to be a process that will take us towards regulation. So I would expect a more flexible and more open position from President Obama in his second term."

Pérez Molina also said he has a message for western drug users. "They should reflect not only on the harm to their own health, but also on the deaths that enable them to consume that cocaine."

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George Soros backs Guatemalan president's call to end war on drugs

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros said the war on drugs had endangered political stability and security in many countries

George Soros has thrown his support behind the president of Guatemala's efforts to end the war on drugs.

Soros, who is best know for leading a run on the pound in 1992 that forced the UK out of the European exchange rate mechanism, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that world leaders had their best chance in at least two decades to rethink their approach to drugs.

"Drug policy has endangered political stability and security in many countries, and not just in Latin America," he said, citing Mali as one of several African countries to suffer.

Soros told a press conference that austerity was encouraging politicians, even in the US, to rethink the war on drugs. "Incarceration is hugely expensive … The cost of alternatives is smaller than the cost of incarceration," he said.

The billionaire philanthropist was speaking alongside the Guatemalan president, Pérez Molina, who announced that he would host a meeting of Latin American leaders to discuss the issue in June. The gathering will involve several groups including the Berkeley Foundation and Soros's own organisation. "Prohibition, this war on drugs, has seen cartels grow and the results are not what we looked for," Molina said. "There is a new trend towards drugs now – not war, but a new perspective and a different way of dealing with the problem."

Molina is determined to use Davos to shift the focus of the drugs debate from morality to science. He told the Observer last week that drug money had penetrated Guatemala's judicial system and security forces, and that he favoured a regulatory approach to drugs, rather than the extremes of a full-blown war on drugs or a policy of liberalisation.

Yasmin Batliwala, chair of Westminster Drug Project, agreed that politicians must tackle the problem by helping users rather than punishing them. "Drug dependency should be seen as a health and social problem, not a crime. Offenders with drug dependency and mental illness should be sent into treatment rather than to prison," she said.

"It is time to take drug dependency out of law enforcement and into the health framework, where it belongs. The war on drugs has failed and it is clear that we need a new approach at both a national and a global level."

Soros admitted that he did not know what the best solution to the problem was. "The answer will only be found by trial and error," he said.

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Briton Lindsay Sandiford sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking

Grandmother from Redcar was arrested in May after Bali police said they found £1.6m-worth of cocaine in her suitcase

A British woman has been sentenced to death after attempting to smuggle £1.6m-worth of cocaine into Bali.

Lindsay Sandiford, a 56-year-old grandmother, originally from Redcar in Teesside, was arrested for drug trafficking in May last year after local police said they found almost 5kg of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase.

There were gasps of surprise in Denpasar district court as the sentence was handed down; the prosecution had sought a 15-year prison term, not the death penalty, but the judge ruled that Sandiford's attempted crime had damaged Bali's image.

Sandiford wept as judges handed down the sentence, covering her face with a scarf as she left the courtroom to return to prison. She earlier told the court she was forced into taking the drugs into the country by gangsters who were threatening to hurt one of her children, saying "the lives of my children were in danger".

Sandiford is now expected to appeal within the next 14 days. If all legal avenues are exhausted she could ask the president for clemency. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has granted clemency to four drug offenders on death row since taking office in 2004.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm that a British national is facing the death penalty in Indonesia. We remain in close contact with that national and continue to provide consular assistance. The UK remains opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances."

Delivering the sentence, a panel headed by Judge Amser Simanjuntak said Sandiford had damaged the image of Bali as a tourist destination and weakened the government's anti-drug programme. "We found no reason to lighten her sentence," he said.

In her witness statement earlier in the trial, Sandiford expressed regret for her actions. "I would like to begin by apologising to the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian people for my involvement. I would never have become involved in something like this but the lives of my children were in danger and I felt I had to protect them," she said.

During the trial, her lawyer read out a statement from her son that said: "I love my mother very much and have a very close relationship with her. I know that she would do anything to protect me. I cannot imagine what I would do if she was sentenced to death in relation to these charges."

Reprieve, a legal action charity, said Sandiford was a vulnerable target for drugs traffickers, pointing to an expert report from Dr Jennifer Fleetwood that was put before the court. Fleetwood concluded that Sandiford's vulnerability would have made her an ideal target for drugs traffickers, noting that: "There is … evidence to suggest that a trafficker would seek someone who was vulnerable. Having reviewed extracts from Lindsay's medical records I know that Lindsay has a history of mental health issues … This may have unfortunately made her an attractive target for threats, manipulation and coercion."

Harriet McCulloch, an investigator at Reprieve, said Sandiford maintained that she only agreed to carry the package to Bali after receiving threats against the lives of her family. "She is clearly not a drug kingpin – she has no money to pay for a lawyer, for the travel costs of defence witnesses or even for essentials like food and water," she said. "She has co-operated fully with the Indonesian authorities but has been sentenced to death while the gang operating in the UK, Thailand and Indonesia remain free to target other vulnerable people."

Martin Horwood, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, where Sandiford lived previously, said the sentence came as a shock, as Indonesian prosecutors had not sought it.

"The days of the death penalty ought to be past. This is not the way that a country that now values democracy and human rights should really be behaving," he told BBC News. "When the prosecutors asked for something less than the death sentence, for a custodial sentence, then I guess I'm afraid some of us perhaps relaxed a little and this has come as a real shock that the judges have actually delivered a sentence which is obviously much, much harsher than the one that was actually requested by prosecutors."

Three other Britons were alleged to be involved in the same plot to smuggle drugs into Bali. Julian Ponder faces being executed by firing squad if found guilty of playing a role in the smuggling scheme when his verdict is given on Wednesday. He is accused of receiving the drugs in Bali, but claimed he was trapped.

His lawyers said he was told Sandiford was delivering a present for his child's birthday and, when he met her to receive the gift, police officers arrested him. His partner, Rachel Dougall, 38, from Brighton, received a one-year jail sentence in the Denpasar district court last month. She had already been in jail for eight months awaiting trial and could be reunited with her daughter by April.

Property developer Paul Beales, a long-time Bali resident, was also spared a harsh sentence when judges gave him four years for possession of a small amount of hashish.

Indonesia has one of the strictest drug policies in the world, with about 40 foreigners on death row convicted of drug crimes, according to a March 2012 report by Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy.

Five foreigners have been executed since 1998, all for drug crimes, according to the institute. There have been no executions in the country since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.

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OM eist maximale straf, hasjbaas gevlogen

Met 8 jaar cel heeft het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) dinsdag voor de rechtbank in Arnhem de hoogst mogelijke straf geëist tegen een 38-jarige Arnhemse hasjbaas, hoewel die inmiddels in Marokko woont en niet uitgeleverd kan worden.

Justitie beschuldigt Ahmed C. van het invoeren en doorverkopen van 65.000 kilo hasj en het witwassen van 23,5 miljoen euro tussen 2005 en 2008. Zijn 49-jarige halfbroer Khalid el B, die altijd al in Marokko verbleef, moet wegens het witwassen van minstens 9 miljoen euro 4 jaar cel opgelegd krijgen, vindt de aanklager.

De officier van justitie gelooft dat C. een enorme internationale hasjhandel bestierde en dat hij de winsten gebruikte voor huizen, auto's, hotels, schepen en investeringen in nieuwe transporten. 'Kijk je naar de enorme schaal van deze zaak, dan verbleken zogenaamd gevestigde hasjcriminelen als Willem Holleeder en wijlen Charles Zwolsman bij deze verdachte', stelde de aanklager.

Hoewel de officier niet aantoont dat C. zelf ooit een gram hasj aanraakte, bewijzen onder meer een aangetroffen hasjboekhouding, telefoonverkeer, onderschepte transporten door anderen, geldstromen en verhullende leenconstructies dat C. spin in dit hasjweb was, vindt het OM.

De winsten werden witgewassen in huizen in Nederland, Spanje en Marokko, via bankrekeningen van de halfbroer en met voorgenomen investeringen in bizar luxe jachten. 'Ik ben van plan om 23 miljoen en 9 miljoen van de heren te plukken in aparte zaken, hoewel ik denk dat C. inmiddels genoeg hotels heeft om zich zelfs dan nooit meer zorgen te maken.'

Volgens advocaat Bart Nooitgedacht, die in de zaak twee keer succesvol wraakte, moet de rechtbank de zaak meteen naar de prullenbak verwijzen omdat justitie allerlei spelregels heeft overtreden. Zo niet, dan is de zaak volgens hem überhaupt niet te bewijzen omdat de aanklager van alles aanneemt zonder dat er deugdelijk bewijs is. Als de rechtbank daar anders over denkt, vindt hij dat de halfbroers alsnog een vrijgeleide moeten krijgen om hun verhaal te komen doen zonder het risico dat ze direct achter slot en grendel verdwijnen.

De uitspraak wordt in februari verwacht.

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Nederland blijft spil in drugshandel

^{Nederland is Europa's 'hoofdproducent' van harddrugs}

Of het nu gaat om de internationale handel in cocaïne, cannabis of XTC, Nederland is en blijft een sleutelrol vervullen. Dat blijkt uit een rapport van Europol.

België en Nederland zijn een belangrijke doorvoerhaven voor cocaïne, zo staat in het rapport.

Beide landen vervullen ook een belangrijke rol in de internationale handel in hasj. Nederland heeft ook een belangrijke rol in de handel van methamfetamine naar Scandinavië.

'Hoofdproducent' van harddrugs
Nederland wordt ook door veel andere Europese landen aangeduid als het land bij uitstek waar xtc vandaan komt. Nederland is Europa's 'hoofdproducent' van de harddrug, zo stelt Europol.

Europol meldt verder dat Chinese bedrijven en groothandels in Nederland de doorvoer van synthetische drugs binnen de Europese Unie faciliteren, doordat ze gebruik maken van een netwerk van Chinese gemeenschappen. Ook neemt het aantal verdachten van Marokkaanse afkomst in de handel in synthetische drugs toe.

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De puurste en goedkoopste coke te vinden in Nederland

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'Het is belangrijk dat we een beter beeld krijgen van de impact van drugshandel op de Europese samenleving en economie', verklaarde eurocommissaris Cecilia Malström van Binnenlandze Zaken in het voorwoord het belang van het onderzoek.

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Amerikaanse gevangenissen barsten uit hun voegen

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Het rapport maakt duidelijk dat steeds meer gevangenen veroordeeld zijn voor inbreuken op de immigratiewet en wapenbezit, maar dat de grootste groep achter slot en grendel zit voor relatief onbeduidende drugsmisdrijven. Deze aanpak doet de misdaadcijfers niet dalen, waarschuwt CRS-analist Nathan James, auteur van het rapport.

Hij verwijst naar misdrijven waarbij iemand anders de plaats van de gearresteerde inneemt. "Als je een serieverkrachter opsluit, kan je er zeker van zijn dat hij niet meer zal toeslaan en dat er hoogstwaarschijnlijk ook niemand zijn plaats inneemt. Maar bij een drugdealer ligt dat anders. Het is niet zeker dat de drughandel stopt als je een dealer oppakt", legt James uit.

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Fears of violence creeping into Mexico City

War on drugs has largely stayed away from the capital, but now police are warning it could spread.

The war on drugs in Mexico has largely stayed away from its capital city. But now some police chiefs are warning the violence could spread.

On Sunday, 18 suspected members of La Familia cartel were arrested in connection to recent killings in Mexico City's suburbs.

Adam Raney reports.

Fears of violence creeping into Mexican capital

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Colombiaanse FARC wil legalisering drugs

(Novum/AP) - De rebellenbeweging FARC heeft de Colombiaanse regering woensdag opgeroepen de kweek van marihuana, papaver en coca te legaliseren, evenals de persoonlijke consumptie van drugs afkomstig van deze planten. De hoofdonderhandelaar van de FARC bij de vredesgesprekken met de regering, Ivan Marquez, presenteerde het voorstel als onderdeel van het standpunt dat de rebellen innemen in de gesprekken.

"De legalisering van de consumptie samen met een goede scholing van jongeren, zoals dat in het verleden is gebeurd met tabak en alcohol, kan ook met cocaïne worden gedaan", zei Marquez. Hij zei ook dat Colombia, tegelijk met de legalisering, het probleem moet oplossen 'van de boeren die uit economische noodzaak coca verbouwen'.

De FARC heeft lang geld verdiend aan de kweek van coca, het basisingrediënt van cocaïne, om zijn gewapende strijd te financieren. De Colombiaanse en andere regeringen beschuldigen de FARC ervan betrokken te zijn bij illegale drugshandel, waaronder het smokkelen van drugs naar Venezuela. De rebellen ontkennen die beschuldigingen. Deskundigen betwijfelen of voor een vredesakkoord lokale FARC-commandanten die geld verdienen aan de drugshandel overgehaald kunnen worden ermee te stoppen.

President Juan Manuel Santos heeft gezegd open te staan voor een debat over de legalisering van drugs. Hij heeft de Verenigde Staten en andere ontwikkelde landen opgeroepen hun verantwoordelijkheid te nemen als grootste consumenten van illegale drugs.

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Marijuana Bills introduced in Congress: Efforts Surge to Reform Marijuana Laws

Driven by a groundswell of public opinion, Colorado and Washington state last November became the first states in the U.S. to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. That wave of support, it now seems clear, has echoed through the U.S. Congress, which Tuesday formally questioned the federal government’s prohibitionist drug policy in the form of marijuana reform bills.

Representatives Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., introduced two separate bills that would drastically change U.S. marijuana laws by addressing what they say are the human and fiscal costs associated with marijuana-related arrests.

It’s not the first time marijuana reform bill have been introduced in Congress, but Tuesday’s measures are considered historic in scope and give further momentum to a marijuana legalization movement that has surged recently from Colorado to Washington to Latin America.

The Polis bill, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, would call on the federal government to regulate marijuana much like it does alcohol. Under the measure, cannabis growers would have to obtain a federal permit in states that legalize the drug. The bill does not force any state to legalize pot, but it does allow states that approve recreational and medical marijuana regulatory systems to operate without the fear of crackdowns from the Drug Enforcement Administration. The measure would also transfer authority to regulate marijuana from the DEA to a renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms.

“In my short time in Congress, and certainly over the last few decades, Americans have increasingly come to the conclusion that the drug war is a failed policy,” said Polis. “While substance abuse is a real problem we need to address, we need to address it increasingly as a public health issue more than a criminal issue.”

The Blumenauer bill, meanwhile, would create a taxation framework for pot similar to that in place for tobacco and alcohol. The Marijuana Tax Equity Act would impose an excise tax of 50% on the “first sale” of marijuana, from growers to processors or retailers. The measure would also tax pot producers $1,000 annually and other marijuana-related businesses $500. Blumenauer said that imposing such a tax would help lower the national deficit while providing funds for drug treatment centers and law enforcement units.

“There is an opportunity for us to make, at a minimum, a $100 billion difference over the next 10 years,” said Blumenauer.

There were 1.5 million drugs arrests made in the U.S. in 2011, according to the FBI. Of those arrests, over 660,000 were for possession of marijuana. The enforcement of federal marijuana laws, including incarceration, costs at least $5.5 billion annually, according to study by the CATO Institute. In New York state alone, the estimated cost of marijuana related arrests surpasses $75 million every year, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit that supports drug policy reform.

Passage of the two bills remains a long shot, according to analysts, but Rep. Blumenauer said the measures are just the beginning of a Congressional push to reform what he calls “antiquated, ineffective and, in some cases, nonsensical federal policies and laws.” Blumenauer pointed to a growing swell of support for marijuana reform measures among his colleagues on Capitol Hill.

In December, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he intends to hold hearings on the conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws. And Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, D-Calif., is soon expected to introduce a measure that would allow states to establish pot policies without federal interference.

“These are the first two of what will probably be eight, 10 bills or more,” said Blumenauer, referring to Tuesday’s measures. Added Polis: “There is growing support within the Democratic caucus and also within the Republican caucus for reexamining the future of the drug war.”

The sudden flurry of federal action on cannabis comes as national polls highlight an outpouring of support for marijuana legalization in recent years. A Gallup poll in October showed that a record high 50% of Americans believe marijuana should be legal. By contrast, just over 30% of Americans held the same view in 2000. Support for medical marijuana is even stronger. A 2012 Gallup poll indicated that 70% of Americans believe it should be legal for a doctor to prescribe pot to reduce pain and suffering.

“Congress is frequently a lagging indicator for public opinion,” said Polis. “Public opinion is that it should be up to states and local governments how to deal with marijuana—it’s just a question of how we’re going to catch up, not if.”

Congressmen Blumenauer And Polis Move To End The Federal Prohibition Of Marijuana

Congressmen Blumenauer And Polis Move To End The Federal Prohibition Of Marijuana

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PvdA wil gemeentelijke wietplantages toestaan

Minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) moet zijn verzet tegen de plannen voor gemeentelijke wietplantages opgeven. Daarvoor pleit de PvdA. Gemeentelijke kwekerijen zullen volgens de partij een oplossing bieden voor de georganiseerde misdaad.

PvdA-Kamerlid Myrthe Hilkens zei vrijdagmorgen op Radio1 dat de partij Opstelten er niet toe wil bewegen om onmiddellijk met dat experiment te beginnen, want 'dat ligt wel wat complexer'. 'Wat wij zouden willen is dat er een moment zou komen waarop we in één klap kunnen overstappen op een nieuw beleid', aldus Hilkens.

'Het kabinet is daar tot nu toe te verdeeld over geweest. Mijn partij wil wel gaan praten met die gemeenten die al hebben aangegeven niet onwelwillend te staan tegenover eigen wietteelt.'

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Recordvangst hasj in Westland

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Video Een vondst van 6,5 duizend kilo hasj in het Westland; volgens de politie en het Openbaar Ministerie een recordvangst.

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Grenades go off near U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

NUEVA LOREDO, Mexico, Feb. 8 (UPI) — Three grenades exploded in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just outside the U.S. Consulate, rattling the neighborhood but causing no injuries, officials said.

The grenades apparently were used in a fight Thursday between members of the Zetas drug cartel and the Gulf cartel, which is trying to reclaim the territory, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Fighting between the two groups, one-time allies, has left a string of burned-out homes and bodies. Sources told the Morning News seven people have been killed in recent days, including three Americans.

Nuevo Laredo, an entry into Texas via Interstate 35, is known as the Zetas’ headquarters.

The Morning News said the Gulf cartel is believed to be backed by the Sinaloa crime organization as it tries to eliminate the Zetas and control the profitable drug route into the United States.

“Things will only heat up,” one person, speaking anonymously, told the newspaper. “This thing goes in waves, and we’re about to see a huge wave.”

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Federal Prosecutors Will Go After Washington And Colorado Marijuana Distributors

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Federal prosecutors will crack down on recreational marijuana dispensaries and growers even in states where they are legal, U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske told a Canadian news magazine this week. The statement appears to be the first from a federal official to state explicitly that the federal government will prosecute dispensaries and producers once they are licensed in Washington and Colorado. During an interview on 20/20, President Obama told Barbara Walters only that the federal government has “bigger fish to fry” than going after recreational users, but did not address those who produce or distribute marijuana. MacLean’s reports:

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Peru Plans to Reduce Coca Production First Time in Eight Years

Peru plans to destroy coca bushes this year at a faster pace than growers expand output as the government seeks to curtail cultivation that has expanded for six straight years.

The government will eradicate a record 22,000 hectares (54,363 acres) of coca plants this year, which will reduce the size of the crop by 6 percent, Carmen Masias, the nation’s drug czar, told reporters in Lima.

Peru’s cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine increased 2 percent to 62,500 hectares in 2011, according to the United Nations, even after the government removed about 10,000 hectares of bushes. The Andean nation, which previously relied solely on foreign aid to finance eradication, will contribute 40 percent of this year’s $30 million budget to expand the program, Masias said. Total spending on the drug fight will rise 16 percent to $278 million.

“Eradication is completely indispensable but must go hand in hand with development” of alternative crops, such as cocoa and palm oil, Masias said. The U.S. government, the main source of drugs aid to Peru, agreed last year to provide $135 million through 2017 for alternative development, she said.

President Ollanta Humala’s government removed about 14,000 hectares of coca bushes last year, 40 percent more than in 2011, to slow growth in a crop that the United Nations says now rivals Colombia’s as the world’s largest.

The drive to curtail cultivation will be extended to the valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers, an area of jungle in the south of the country where holdout members of the Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency group, are active, Masias said.

The government is also removing coca bushes for the first time in the Monzon valley in northern Peru, where the crop has been grown for the drug trade for 80 years, she said.

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Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail

How HSBC hooked up with drug traffickers and terrorists. And got away with it

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The deal was announced quietly, just before the holidays, almost like the government was hoping people were too busy hanging stockings by the fireplace to notice. Flooring politicians, lawyers and investigators all over the world, the U.S. Justice Department granted a total walk to executives of the British-based bank HSBC for the largest drug-and-terrorism money-laundering case ever. Yes, they issued a fine – $1.9 billion, or about five weeks' profit – but they didn't extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying abuses.

People may have outrage fatigue about Wall Street, and more stories about billionaire greedheads getting away with more stealing often cease to amaze. But the HSBC case went miles beyond the usual paper-pushing, keypad-punching­ sort-of crime, committed by geeks in ties, normally associated­ with Wall Street. In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway.

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That nobody from the bank went to jail or paid a dollar in individual fines is nothing new in this era of financial crisis. What is different about this settlement is that the Justice Department, for the first time, admitted why it decided to go soft on this particular kind of criminal. It was worried that anything more than a wrist slap for HSBC might undermine the world economy. "Had the U.S. authorities decided to press criminal charges," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at a press conference to announce the settlement, "HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking license in the U.S., the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilized."

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Police chief of Mexico border city is missing

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The police chief of the violent Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo is missing, authorities said Monday.

Tamaulipas state prosecutors said they have opened an investigation into the whereabouts of Roberto Balmori Garza, police chief of the city across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Tamaulipas prosecutors said in a brief statement that state officials in Nuevo Laredo will be in charge of the investigation.

Local media reported that two of Balmori Garza's brothers were found shot dead Sunday inside the trunk of a car in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon. One of his brothers was a federal investigator, media reported.

Tamaulipas prosecutors' spokesman Ruben Dario said Balmori Garza disappeared over the weekend. He said he couldn't give any other information on the case or confirm the media reports of the death of Balmori Garza's brothers.

Nuevo Laredo, a stronghold of the Zetas drug cartel, has been the scene of bloody drug-gang turf battles since the beginning of the year.

Two years ago, gunmen killed a retired army general who had been police chief of Nuevo Laredo for a month. Two of his bodyguards also were slain and two suffered wounds.

The Zetas, known for its viciousness, has been fighting its former ally, the Gulf cartel, in Mexico's northeast since early 2010.

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Mexican drug cartels penetrate southern Europe

BRUSSELS – One of Mexico’s largest and most dangerous drug cartels has expanded its activities throughout the world, including Spain, Italy and the Western Balkans.

“The reach of drug trafficking cartels, in particular the Sinaloa cartel, is one that is frankly global,” said the US deputy assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Brian Nichols, on Thursday (8 November) in Brussels.

American media cite the cartels as reaping billions in profits from hubs stationed only in and around the United States.

But the Sinaloa cartel retains a special status.

In 2010, it allegedly infiltrated the Mexican government, placing informants to secure territory inside the country and to take out rivals. Some, working in conjunction with local crime lords, have already been arrested in Spain and in Italy.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, Nichols said the cartel is principally interested in moving cocaine but also has interest in marijuana, methamphetamines and ecstasy.

“In terms of their presence in southern Europe, I think they are looking for an entry point, they are looking for markets where they can move their products,” said Nichols.

The globalised nature of the drug cartels has pushed national enforcement authorities to work closer together.

Nichols said the US is engaged with the Dutch and the UK in the Caribbean. Agents from Italy, Spain and the UK in Central America are working closely with US rule of law and counter-narcotic experts to investigate and crack down on the networks.

“Most of the leads we follow up on in Europe are developed in the Americas, whether it’s Mexico or Columbia or Peru,” said Nichols.

The Mexicans are not the only ones with an acute business interest in the Western Balkans. Colombians and Peruvians are also making in-roads.

“People in Western Balkans are talking to their suppliers in Mexico, in South America,” said Nichols.

The joint efforts of crime fighting units from across the globe is a relatively new phenomenon.

South American countries, for instance, are partnering investigations in the Western Balkans and sharing their knowledge and intelligence. “[It] previously is not something you would have seen,” said Nichols.

EU secret police

But in Europe, some elusive cross-border investigations and police networks have been in place for at least two decades.

An inquiry by a handful of members from the left-leaning group in Germany’s Bundestag received some insight into activities over the summer after pressing the government for information for over two years.

According to their research, the Dutch launched an International Working Group on Police Undercover Activities (IWG) in 1989. The group has grown.

Agents from all around Europe allegedly meet to exchange experience on all matters related to the covert deployment of police officers.

A source familiar with the group told the deputies that one such meeting in 2007 included “police authority representatives from European states, as well as from Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA.”

Germany’s federal government told the deputies in May that its own foreign agents are carefully selected and take on considerable risks “that put their lives and health in danger.”

German officials also stated they rely on the dedication and specialist expertise of the agents when it comes to combating the most serious of crimes like human trafficking, with some organised crime syndicates or networks are involved in murder and kidnappings.

“[This] can only be opposed effectively by the German state if there are such officers who express a willingness to undertake covert operations,” the federal government told the deputies.

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Man zwaargewond door meerdere politiekogels bij drugsactie

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De man sloeg op de vlucht na een geplande drugsactie van de politie. Toen hij er in zijn auto vandoor ging, zette de politie met de nodige wagens de achtervolging in. Op de rotonde bij de Merwedelaan en Rijnstraat ramde de man een andere auto. De inzittenden daarvan raakten niet gewond.