News of drugs

US$30 billion a year – Ecuador reveals size of local cartel trade

18-02-2025 14:44 Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa admits that cartels and gangs move US$30 billion worth of drugs, arms and other illicit goods through his country a year.

DRUG VIOLENCE

Narco violence tops agenda in Ecuador election

04-02-2025 10:25 Ecuadoreans vote Sunday for the country's next president as drug-related cartel and mafia violence run rampant. 'Iron fist' incumbent Daniel Noboa is up against Luisa González, a staunch defender of democracy.

Hidrovía Paraná-Paraguay

Paraná-Paraguay waterway a focal point for global security policy

10-01-2025 13:44 Ongoing tussle involving major dredging companies seeking to participate in Milei government's tender. Hidrovía Paraná-Paraguay is a naval highway for the trafficking of illicit drugs to the rest of the world.

CRIME & SECURITY

‘Narco-terrorists’ make death threats against security minister, governor

02-12-2024 16:18 Security Minister Patricia Bullrich vows to clamp down on “narco-terrorists” after threats against her and Santa Fe Province Governor Maximilaino Pullaro in video.

DEATH OF LIAM PAYNE

Initial test results confirm presence of cocaine in Liam Payne's body

21-10-2024 07:34 Initial test results sent to prosecutor leading case into late One Direction star's death reveal presence of cocaine in Liam Payne's body.

FOREIGN POLICY & DIPLOMACY

With Biden’s envoy in town, Argentina steps up efforts to tackle against synthetic drugs

16-10-2024 15:41 Foreign Minister Diana Mondino receives top US narcotics official Todd D. Robinson, as Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announces Argentina will set up a regional intelligence centre to combat synthetic drug trafficking.

by Cecilia Degl'Innocenti

DRUG-TRAFFICKING

‘Mochileros de la cocaína’ – Rising numbers of drug ‘mule’ backpackers

12-09-2024 13:00 Farm hands, manual labourers and local guides in the north of Argentina are being coopted by criminal organisations for the overland transfer of drugs across the frontier with Bolivia, crossing mountains and valleys without caring about the weather or the visibility.

by Leonardo Nieva

DRUG-TRAFFICKING

Cocaine ‘mules’ arrested in Jujuy with capsules hidden in bodies

12-09-2024 00:54 Bolivian nationals were transporting 323 capsules of cocaine hidden on their person, reports authorities.

FOREIGN POLICY & DIPLOMACY

'A mistake': Spanish minister backtracks on Milei 'substances' remark

07-05-2024 15:35 Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente says his suggestion that Javier Milei acted like he was on “substances” was an error and that he didn't foresee the repercussions.

FEATURE

Poverty, marginalisation, cocaine: Gangs find lucrative combo

30-03-2024 06:48 Argentina's economy is in intensive care. Financial stagnation, coupled with record inflation and the slashing of public spending have resulted in rising poverty and marginalisation. But in every crisis some see opportunity, and this time, it is crime groups. With drug-trafficking expanding in the barrios, analysts warn of new complex dynamics in the long run.

by Josefina Salomon*, In.Visibles

CRIME & SECURITY

Federal troops arrive in Rosario as drug violence, paralyses city

14-03-2024 21:53 After a week marked by a wave of violence, murder and drug-trafficking, 450 reinforcements arrive in troubled city, adding to the 2,000 members of the Coast Guard, Border Guard, Federal Police and Airport Security Force who are providing support.

CRIME & SECURITY

Santa Fe governor orders Bukele-style tactics for narcos in Rosario

11-03-2024 12:53 Santa Fe Province Governor Maximiliano Pullaro is angering narco bosses with his Bukele-style approach to tackling drug violence in dangerous Rosario.

WAR ON DRUGS

Petro: US anti-drug policies caused Latin American 'genocide'

01-03-2024 15:47 "We have lived through a genocide of a million Latin Americans in the last half-century," declares Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who points the finger at the United States.

ARMED ATTACK

Gunmen burst into Ecuador television studio live on air

09-01-2024 17:15 Armed men wearing balaclavas burst into studio of public television station in Ecuador's drug violence-torn port city of Guayaquil, taking hostage several journalists and staff members.

CRIME & SECURITY

Organised crime in Argentina: clans, crooked cops and money-laundering

04-09-2023 07:12 In Latin American countries such as Colombia, Mexico or El Salvador, criminal organisations have nearly taken control of their territories. Argentina, on the other hand, steers clear of that kind of violence, but that does not mean those groups do not have a presence here. Clans, money-laundering and complicity.

by Sabrina Chemen

DRUG-TRAFFICKING

Bolivia says huge manhunt closing in on accused drug-lord

02-08-2023 12:59 Bolivian authorities conduct massive operation to capture alleged cocaine-trafficker Sebastián Enrique Marset Cabrera, wanted on drugs charges in several countries.

CRIME & SECURITY

Rosario surpasses grim threshold of 150 homicides

06-07-2023 09:35 Four people killed in just three hours in crime-ridden Rosario; Argentina's second city, with a population of 1.3 million, has already suffered 151 homicides this year.

Drug-trafficking

Uruguay finds cocaine in surfboards bound for Europe

14-06-2023 10:32 Uruguay's anti-drug brigade seize almost 50 kilos of cocaine hidden in surfboards in an international operation launched in May with police from Spain, Portugal and Italy. The drugs were bound for Europe.

Eugenio Burzaco interview

City security minister: ‘Tasers will be operational in Buenos Aires by June or July’

18-04-2023 16:09 Buenos Aires City Security Minister Eugenio Burzaco reveals in an interview that the first shipment of tasers will arrive this month and City Hall hopes to have 100 in use by the end of the year.

CRIME & SECURITY

Interpol says 14,000 arrested in Latin America gun raids

18-04-2023 15:08 Over 14,000 people have been arrested and 8,000 weapons seized in an anti-firearms operation across Central and South America, Interpol announces.

CRIME & SECURITY

Rosario: A city under threat from murderous drug gangs

29-03-2023 13:18 Rosario, Argentina's second city with a population of 1.3 million, has a homicide rate of 22 per 100,000 inhabitants – five times the national average. As a result of its privileged position as a major port city, drug-trafficking is having a devastating impact on the city’s poorest neighbourhoods and residents.

CRIME & SECURITY

Government reinforces security forces in Rosario amid drug violence

07-03-2023 15:07 President Fernández boosts the number of federal security forces available to authorities in Rosario and says he will send a division of the Army to support efforts to overhaul and urbanise working-class neighbourhoods.

News of drugs

US$30 billion a year – Ecuador reveals size of local cartel trade

Narco violence tops agenda in Ecuador election

Paraná-Paraguay waterway a focal point for global security policy

‘Narco-terrorists’ make death threats against security minister, governor

Initial test results confirm presence of cocaine in Liam Payne's body

With Biden’s envoy in town, Argentina steps up efforts to tackle against synthetic drugs

‘Mochileros de la cocaína’ – Rising numbers of drug ‘mule’ backpackers

Cocaine ‘mules’ arrested in Jujuy with capsules hidden in bodies

'A mistake': Spanish minister backtracks on Milei 'substances' remark

Poverty, marginalisation, cocaine: Gangs find lucrative combo

Federal troops arrive in Rosario as drug violence, paralyses city

Santa Fe governor orders Bukele-style tactics for narcos in Rosario

Petro: US anti-drug policies caused Latin American 'genocide'

Gunmen burst into Ecuador television studio live on air

Organised crime in Argentina: clans, crooked cops and money-laundering

Bolivia says huge manhunt closing in on accused drug-lord

Rosario surpasses grim threshold of 150 homicides

Uruguay finds cocaine in surfboards bound for Europe

City security minister: ‘Tasers will be operational in Buenos Aires by June or July’

Interpol says 14,000 arrested in Latin America gun raids

Rosario: A city under threat from murderous drug gangs

Government reinforces security forces in Rosario amid drug violence

Hamas hands over bodies of Israel's Bibas family, elderly hostage

Milei orders Anti-Corruption Office to launch '$LIBRA' probe as opposition eyes commission

Milei crypto scandal widens with allegations against his sister

$LIBRA scandal: Multi-million-dollar civil lawsuit in US 'being prepared'

Israel hostage group mourns 'heart-shattering' death of Bibas babies

Santiago Caputo se arrojó sobre una granada para impedir que volara Javier Milei

El Gobierno transformó al Banco Nación en una sociedad anónima

Según Arkham, Hayden Davis tiene ocultos casi 300 milones de dólares de la Criptomoneda $Libra

"Estafador": El gremio bancario enojadísimo con Javier Milei por convertir al Banco Nación en SA

Trump llamó "dictador" a Zelenski por no celebrar elecciones y le insta a actuar para no quedarse "sin país"