Cocaine

The video is grainy, black and white and of poor quality. But it is the key evidence in a perjury and conspiracy trial of three current and former Los Angeles police officers accused of lying under oath four years ago about a drug arrest. Jurors in a downtown courtroom Friday watched the security camera recording, which prosecutors said contradicts police testimony about how long it took the officers to find a small box containing cocaine. It also captured what prosecutors contend was a revealing conversation among officers after the discovery.

Morphine and cocaine both lead to addiction in part because of how they affect key reward areas in the brain. But a new study shows that they do this in very different ways -- knowledge that may eventually make treatments for addicts more specific and successful, but that also may complicate matters for people who take multiple drugs at once. Cocaine and morphine both have profound effects on the flow of dopamine -- a neurotransmitter scientists have consistently implicated in our sensations of reward in the brain.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Venezuelan police on Tuesday captured Colombia's most wanted fugitive, the notorious Daniel "El Loco" Barrera, who is suspected of smuggling 100 tons of cocaine in recent years to U.S. and European markets. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos went on national television Tuesday night to announce the capture of Barrera in the western Venezuelan city of San Cristobal. Colombian authorities had posted a $2.5-million reward for information leading to his arrest.

The masterminds of an international rhinoceros horn smuggling ring pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles federal court to illegal wildlife trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. The pleas Friday wrapped up the first phase of a nationwide crackdown on the lucrative horn trade to Asia. Vinh Chuong "Jimmy" Kha and Felix Kha, who have been jailed since their homes and import-export business in Garden Grove and Westminster were raided in February, probably face about five more years in prison under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

Mexico's U.S.-backed naval special forces have captured a man believed to be one of the two top leaders of the Gulf cartel, a drug-trafficking organization that once dominated the northeast border region but has recently engaged in devastating battles with the vicious Zeta paramilitary force, authorities said Tuesday. Mario Cardenas Guillen, alias El Gordo ("Fatso"), was paraded before reporters in Mexico City on Tuesday after his capture Monday in the northern border state of Tamaulipas.

Hollywood loves a good crime saga, so it's little wonder that studios are rumored to be hot for the life story of Griselda Blanco, the infamous female Colombian drug lord who was shot dead in her hometown of Medellín on Monday. Gunned down by an assassin on a motorcycle (in a style of execution she reportedly perfected) outside of a butcher shop, Blanco lived a life as large as a Corleone and was known as the "Godmother" of cocaine. According to an obituary in the Miami Herald , "At least three feature films and an HBO series featuring Blanco were in the works at the time of her death.

Jockey Eswan Flores was pulled from his mounts at Del Mar more than a week ago after a random drug test came back positive for cocaine, Keith Brackpool, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, confirmed on Tuesday in a statement. Flores is challenging the validity of the test, according to Doug Christensen, his manager. “He absolutely has not taken cocaine,” Christensen said. “I believe the test was corrupted.” Christensen said Flores took a second test two days later that came back negative for cocaine.

Journalist and first-time filmmaker Nicole Karsin spent more than three clearly committed years, from 2006 to 2009, in remote and perilous Colombian villages shooting the documentary "We Women Warriors. " The result is an impressive effort that tells the gripping, complex story of a country and a people under siege. Karsin follows three indigenous women - Doris, Ludis and Flor - whose various tribes are caught in the crossfire between Colombia's guerrillas, paramilitary groups and armed forces.

Colombia 's cocaine production fell by nearly 25% in 2011 from the previous year, and was down by more than 70% since 2001, according to the White House. A report released this week by the Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests that the Andean country once known as the largest producer of cocaine has scored a remarkable victory. That's great news, if indeed the latest estimates are accurate. But the report is at odds with a United Nations survey released last week that concluded that Colombia's cocaine production remains virtually unchanged, dropping by a mere 1% since 2010.

A Los Angeles County jury found a man described as a "top lieutenant" for a large-scale narcotics operation that stretched to the Midwest guilty Monday of possessing and transporting hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana. Prosecutors took Derwin Webster, 38, to trial more than six years after he was arrested on suspicion of helping move cocaine into the secret compartment of a tractor-trailer near Rowland Heights. Authorities at the time alleged that Webster and his cohorts were moving drugs for a cartel that transported large quantities of cocaine from Mexico to distant regions of the United States.