Users of cocaine are destroying the rainforest, according to law enforcement officials. From the Guardian: Four square metres of rainforest are destroyed for every gram of cocaine snorted in the UK, a conference of senior police officers as told yesterday. Francisco Santos Calderón, the vice-president of Colombia, appealed to British users of the class A drug to consider [...]

Scientists have found a gene that increases the chance of a person becoming addicted to cocaine. From the Guardian: It has become commonplace for people who are overweight to attribute their waistline to their DNA. Now, celebrities caught snorting cocaine might also be able to blame their parents. Scientists reported yesterday the discovery of a gene that increases [...]

Guerrilla group Hezbollah raised funds for its organization through cocaine trafficking in Colombian. From the Los Angeles Times: U.S. and Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money laundering ring that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militia, officials said Tuesday. Culminating a two-year investigation, authorities arrested at least 36 [...]

As the United States and Colombia continue to make progress against traffickers in Colombia, Venezuela is picking up the demand by transporting cocaine from its territory. From the Boston Globe: The number of flights transporting tons of Colombian cocaine from Venezuela, destined for the United States, has risen sharply, according to US and foreign intelligence reports, presenting [...]

The Bush Administration is proposing cuts in trade benefits for Bolivia due to the rampant drug trafficking in the country. From Bloomberg News: President George W. Bush called for a suspension of trade preferences that benefit Bolivia, saying the Andean country hasn’t done enough to fight drug trafficking. “Bolivia has failed to cooperate with the United States on [...]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned that the amount of drug trafficking in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau is much higher than previously reported.  From Reuters Africa:  Rising drug trafficking and organized crime in Guinea-Bissau could wreak havoc in the West African country, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released on Thursday. “The volume of [...]

In an effort to focus on large-scale drug trafficking, Mexico President Felipe Calderon is seeking to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana and cocaine use in the country.  From Reuters: Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody battle with drug cartels, wants to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of street drugs in a plan likely to [...]

A report by the Inspector General of the US Interior Department has found that officials in charge of collecting oil royalties has been involved in sexual relations with their subordinates, buying cocaine in their office, and receiving kick-backs from contractors.  From the Washington Post: Government officials in charge of collecting billions of dollars worth of royalties from [...]

Coca that is leagally cultivated in Colombia ends up in the global cocaine trade, according to the Washington Post.  Here in the lush Yungas region of western Bolivia, farmers are allowed by law to plant a total of nearly 30,000 acres of coca — leaf that is then sold in the domestic market for tea or [...]

The war of words over drug trafficking is creating additional diplomatic problems between the United States and Venezuela.  From the AP (via Google News): President Hugo Chavez’s insistence that Venezuela doesn’t need U.S. help in fighting drug trafficking is raising diplomatic tensions as American officials warn of a surge in cocaine flights out of the country. New surveillance [...]