Drug Trafficking

Mexico agreed to extradite a top leader of a Tijuana-based drug cartel to the U.S., dismissing a judge's opinion that it would mean trying him on the same charges twice. Benjamin Arellano Felix was arrested in 2002 and has already been sentenced to 22 years in prison in Mexico on drug-trafficking and organized crime charges. He also was sentenced to more than five years for weapons possession. His brother Ramon was killed in 2002 in a shootout with police.

A breakdown in anti-drug cooperation between Venezuela and the United States has contributed to an alarming surge in cocaine trafficking from Venezuela, according to a report issued Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The volume of drugs passing through Venezuela more than quadrupled from 66 tons in 2004 to 287 tons in 2007, the GAO said. U.S.

The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have concluded that the amount of drug money flowing to the Taliban in Afghanistan is far lower than widely estimated but remains critical to the insurgents' ability to survive, according to a Senate report released Tuesday. The two spy agencies believe that Taliban leaders receive about $70 million a year from Afghanistan's lucrative poppy crop -- far lower than the $400-million estimate released last year by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Mired in a bloody battle with major drug traffickers, Mexico is quietly eliminating jail time for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. The government of President Felipe Calderon says removing the penalties will help in its fight against traffickers by freeing up law enforcement resources and shifting attention from minor consumers to big-time dealers and drug lords. The law also provides for free treatment for addicts. But critics say decriminalization sends the wrong message amid a drug war that has claimed more than 11,000 lives since late 2006.

A notorious ex-paramilitary leader accused by authorities of drug trafficking and gun running was arrested early Wednesday in the northern Colombian jungle, capping a months-long pursuit. The detention of Daniel Rendon Herrera, 43, described by police as Colombia's "most wanted criminal," could set off a violent power struggle within the illicit drug world.

Alarmed by the rise in Latin American drug traffic in West Africa, nations including Colombia, Brazil and the United States are establishing or increasing their police presence in that unstable region. Racked by internal strife that has left them poor, crime-ridden and institutionally weak, several West African nations in recent years have become key transit hubs for Colombian, Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine headed to Europe. In an interview last week, Colombian National Police commander Gen.

A respected skid row facility that provides shelter and counseling to homeless people became a site for drug dealing, leading to a double homicide inside the Lamp Lodge earlier this year, according to police detectives and court records. Los Angeles Police Department detectives allege that dealers sold rock cocaine and heroin out of the Lamp Lodge for months, a practice that ended after one of the alleged drug dealers and another man were shot to death there in April. Lamp officials said claims of widespread drug dealing at the facility are overblown.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday launched an investigation into how the Sheriff's Department conducted a narcotics-search operation at Los Angeles Trade Tech College in which 33 students, all minorities, were detained. The Oct. 17 incident has fueled allegations of racial profiling from civil rights groups and sparked changes in the way the Sheriff's Department communicates with the Los Angeles Community College District.

The national police commissioner, who faces charges of corruption and trying to protect a convicted drug smuggler, has gone on extended leave, the South African president said Saturday. The National Prosecuting Authority said Friday that charges would be filed soon against Jackie Selebi, who also holds the largely ceremonial post of president of Interpol. Selebi has denied any wrongdoing.

The writer was one of the legion of underpaid beat reporters in Mexico, the kind who churn out four or five stories a day, for low pay and little recognition. They know all about the corrupt and violent dealings going on around them, even though they can't always pass on this knowledge to their readers.