drug smuggling

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Drug Catapult Seized at Mexican Border

Border fence pot-flingers foiled

(Newser) - Mexican drug smugglers trying to get marijuana across the border have resorted to medieval methods. A pot-flinging catapult was seized after National Guardsmen in Arizona spotted it being used other side of the border and alerted Mexican authorities, AP reports. The smugglers got away but left behind their vehicle, 35...

Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Nabbed

Overloaded bird caught outside prison

(Newser) - Police in Colombia busted a pigeon narco-trafficker after it was caught trying to fly into a prison with too heavy a load. The bird, which is now being cared for by authorities, was found struggling to fly with 40 grams of marijuana and 5 grams of cocaine paste strapped to...

Police Bust 'Sophisticated' Drug Tunnel in San Diego

It's the second such discovery in the region this month

(Newser) - Just weeks after uncovering a drug smuggling tunnel some six football fields long , officials in San Diego have busted a second such passageway. The half-mile tunnel runs from a home in Tijuana to a San Diego warehouse—which happens to be located near the building that housed the entrance to...

Drug Smugglers Burrow Under Border

Arizona town stands over network of tunnels to Mexico

(Newser) - Drug smugglers have found a new way to sneak their merchandise across the US-Mexico border : Under it. The heart of the burrowing business are the Nogales—two towns bearing the same name on either side of the border, notes the New York Times . There, in an old network of drainage...

Drug Cartels' Secret Weapon: US Agents

Smugglers pay big money for insider help

(Newser) - Mexico has a vast, well-known corruption problem, but drug cartels are increasingly finding helping hands across the border in the form of US border agents, finds the Washington Post . In one typical case, an American mother of two, Martha Garnica, worked with smugglers to sneak people and drugs across the...

Manuel Noriega Gets 7-Year Sentence

France nails former dictator for laundering drug money

(Newser) - A Paris court today convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering drug money in France in the 1980s and ordered him to spend seven years behind bars—a sentence that comes on top of his two decades already spent in a US prison. The three-judge panel also ordered the...

Smugglers Make Fake World Cup Out of Coke

Colombian police seize illegal replica after noticing peeling paint

(Newser) - Colombian investigators didn't like the "bad condition" of the gold paint on what at first appeared to be a World Cup trophy, so they had it checked—and found that the trophy seized at the Bogota airport consisted of 24 pounds of cocaine. The real thing is solid gold...

Reputed Jamaican Drug Lord Surrenders

Christopher 'Dudus' Coke is in custody

(Newser) - Reputed gang leader Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who eluded a bloody police offensive in his slum stronghold last month, surrendered to authorities outside Jamaica's capital today, local news media reported. Coke has been called one of the world's most dangerous drug lords by US authorities and faces trial in New...

Chocolate-Lover Busted for Cocaine-Filled Truffles

Turns out the guy had more than a sweet tooth

(Newser) - Guess it looked like a sweet deal to Robert Lopera. That is, before customs officials stopped the American at JFK Airport and took a close look at the heavy bags of chocolate truffles and pistachios he was toting on his return from Colombia. Turns out the truffles were cocaine balls...

Convent Drug Ring Busted
 Convent Drug Ring Busted 
May 13, 2010 1:42 AM CDT

Convent Drug Ring Busted

Nuns were oblivious to cocaine in prayer books

(Newser) - Italian police have smashed a huge cocaine ring that used a Milan-area convent as a cover. The convent's South American janitor collected cocaine hidden in prayer books from drug smugglers posing as pilgrims, the BBC reports. The janitor was among 33 people busted. Mafia and Colombian cartels were behind the...

Help! Texas Cops Stuck With 200,000 lbs of Pot

Tiny sheriff's department can't afford to destroy confiscated cannabis

(Newser) - Your local sheriff's department has a problem. Who wouldn't want help out? So when Brooks County, Texas, complains that it has 200,000 pounds of marijuana on its hands and no funding to dispose of it, civic-minded blog Toke of the Town naturally offers to come to the rescue. The...

Pot Smugglers Prefer Postal Service

Shipments through the mail have shot up in recent years

(Newser) - Pot traffickers are increasingly realizing that there's no need to risk hauling their drugs across the country—they can just have the US Postal Service do it for them. Seizures of marijuana by postal inspectors have increased 400% since 2007. More than 3,600 packages with marijuana were found in...

China Executes British Drug Smuggler

Akmal Shaikh, said to be mentally ill, dies by firing squad

(Newser) - Despite protests from the British government and human-rights activists worldwide, China today executed by firing squad a Briton convicted of smuggling drugs into the country. Supporters say Akmal Shaikh, 53, had bipolar disorder; the Foreign Office’s complaint centered on concerns China had not taken those issues into account in...

Veiled Women Nabbed in $12.5M Jakarta Drug Bust

Iranians arrested in record airport drug haul

(Newser) - Eight veiled women were among a group of 10 Iranians arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling at Indonesia's main airport today. The $12.5 million haul of methamphetamines found in their hand baggage is the biggest drug bust in the airport's history, authorities say. Indonesian authorities have never seen veiled...

Gal Pal Busted for Smuggling Heroin to Cam Douglas

(Newser) - The girlfriend of Michael Douglas' elder son has been busted after trying to smuggle 19 glassine envelopes of heroin to her boyfriend, police told the New York Post. The drugs were hidden in a black bag carrying an electric toothbrush and delivered to Cameron Douglas, 30, at mother Diandra Douglas'...

3 Teens Caught With Half-Ton of Pot on Boat

(Newser) - Three US teenagers returned from Mexico from what they claimed was a fishing trip with quite a catch: more than half a ton of marijuana stuffed beneath the deck of their boat. The three—two males ages 18 and 19 and a 19-year-old female—were arrested when they docked their...

Drug Smugglers Head to Sea on .... Surfboards?

(Newser) - Improved security along the US-Mexico border has pushed enterprising smugglers to the sea in any manner of craft, the New York Times reports. Authorities have been catching twice as many illegal immigrants as usual—and seized 7 times the typical quantity of drugs—in recent months from boats and beaches,...

Mexican Cartels Lure US Teens to Kill

Boys as young as 13 become smugglers, assassins

(Newser) - The powerful cartels that control the drug trade in Mexico increasingly have help north of the border—in the form of American teenagers, some as young as 13, who work as smugglers and assassins. The New York Times profiles one boy, who was recruited by the Gulf Cartel to kill...

Mexican Cocaine Hidden in Sharks

(Newser) - The Mexican Navy seized more than a ton of cocaine packed inside the bodies of frozen sharks on a freighter off the Yucatan coast headed for America, reports the BBC. The booty was pinpointed using dogs and x-ray machines, officials said. Drug fighters warned that powerful cartels are using increasingly...

Massive Drug Tunnel Found Under Mexico Border

Elaborate smuggling tunnel to Arizona has electricity, ventilation system

(Newser) - The US Border Patrol has uncovered one of the biggest and most sophisticated smuggling tunnels under the Mexican border it has ever seen, CNN reports. The 83-foot tunnel to Arizona from Nogales, Mexico, was still under construction when it was found after a tipoff from somebody who heard construction sounds....

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