Cocaine

A recent surge in arrests and cocaine seizures in Peru points to an increased presence of Mexican drug cartels, counter-narcotics officials say. The cartels have also contributed to more drug-related violence in Peruvian cities, ports and in remote valleys in this Andean country where coca, cocaine's base material, is grown, the officials say.

The man who killed his ex-wife and eight members of her family while dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve had trace amounts of cocaine in his system at the time of the shooting, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Friday. The cocaine was only a contributing factor and not a primary reason for the actions of Bruce Jeffrey Pardo that night, said Ed Winter of the coroner's office. Pardo dressed up as Santa Claus and attacked the family at its Covina home last December. He later committed suicide.

The Obama administration, signaling a sharp departure from more than 20 years of federal policy, urged Congress on Wednesday to close the gap in prison sentences given to those convicted of dealing crack versus powdered cocaine. Assistant Atty. Gen. Lanny Breuer said the mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines are so inherently unfair that they have undermined trust in the country's judicial institutions, particularly among minorities who bear the brunt of the law.

Rafael Nadal would be the first to say he's coming back from sore knees and it's no big thing. Richard Gasquet would be the first to say he's coming back from a raw deal and it's a huge thing. The two young tennis stars played a first-round match on center court at the U.S. Open on Wednesday. Nadal won, as expected. Gasquet showed flashes of brilliance in the 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 defeat, as expected. But this was much more than your routine match. This one had connections, multiple story lines and an off-court soap opera.

Nature photographer Aldo Brando saw a horrible beauty in the destruction visited upon Colombia's national parks by outlaw coca growers. As his helicopter slalomed through a dozen sky-high columns of smoke from fires set by poachers clearing Macarena National Park, Brando saw endless "craters" of lime-green coca. He likened the park's once unbroken carpet of dark green primeval forest, now scarred by roads, fires and illegal chemicals, to "the black-and-white palette of war."

New federal sentencing guidelines designed to end the racially tinged disparity between prison sentences for powder and crack cocaine dealers went into effect a month ago, and so far more than 3,000 inmates have had their prison terms reduced. Dozens have been released, including at least 15 in California, but many others who should have been released have not. Attorneys involved in the process blame bureaucratic delays as well as opposition from the Justice Department.

LAPD detectives say Sam Flemming was truly skid row's nickel and dime drug dealer. LAPD narcotics detectives said that when they arrested him last Thursday after watching him sell rock cocaine in the heart of skid row, they found $11,000 in his pockets. But when they got a search warrant for his apartment -- a block from the LAPD's Central Station -- they found 1.5 pounds of cocaine and $135,035 in bills and coins.

Around dawn on a Sunday, packs of young people are huddled at stoplights, or ambling down Paseo del Prado. Despite the hour, the day isn't just beginning for them. Like thousands of young Spaniards, they are ending a long night of hard-core partying that very likely included the unbridled snorting of cocaine.

Colombian peasants devoted about 27% more land to growing coca last year, the United Nations reported Wednesday, calling the increase a surprise given the intense efforts to eradicate cocaine's raw ingredient. Estimated cocaine production, however, increased only slightly in Colombia and other Andean nations as cultivation shifted to smaller, less productive plots in more remote locations. About 1,096 tons was produced in 2007, compared with 1,085 tons the year before, according to the U.N.

Honduran and U.S. authorities seized at least 4.6 tons of cocaine on a boat in the Caribbean Sea and arrested six of the vessel's crew members. Honduran Navy Cmdr. Juan Pablo Rodriguez said Saturday that the cocaine was found on the Honduran-flagged Eclipse about 100 miles off the Honduran coast, in a joint operation with the U.S. Coast Guard. The area is near the Nicaraguan border. Rodriguez said the officials were still searching the boat.