Word: drugging
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...destination country hardest hit by the new drug pipeline is Spain. Cocaine has flooded into Spain on smuggling boats, some of which use the same extensive networks that carry illegal migrants. Officials believe that Colombian cartels have long-standing connections in Spain, based partly on their shared language, and that smugglers have converted their old hashish trade into more lucrative cocaine operations. "They are taking advantage of the old marijuana routes into southern Spain," says Matilde Duque, spokeswoman for Spain's Ministry of Health antidrug plan. "The infrastructure is already in place. They are just changing the cargo." Last year...
...claim that the military has effectively blocked any effort to end the trade and that it's protecting the cartels. "The military has impunity and we have no protection," says Judge André Lima. He says the military has forced judges to sign release orders for those arrested on drug charges. "What is sad is that we are forever prosecuting people who steal one chicken or a cow," says Lima. "But [cases involving] drugs will never get to court...
...Since the police arrest few traffickers, people sense little danger in the business. To many Africans involved, cocaine is a drug used by Europeans and Americans, not them, and the easy money it provides is just good business. "Everybody is saying that this is a blessing from God because the government does not have the money to pay people," says a local journalist in Bissau...
Beyond the risks of addiction, however, officials warn that there are dangerous links between the drug business and funding for terrorism - an argument that U.S. authorities use to press European governments to crack down on drug networks. They point to the fact that the explosives used in the Madrid train bombings of 2004, which killed 191 people, were bought with hashish. "We are seeing increasing incidents of the use of drug barter for munitions in terror attacks," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen Tandy told international law-enforcement officials at a meeting in Madrid...
Seven European governments will open a drug intelligence and operations center in Lisbon later this year. These countries - Spain, Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy and France - will coordinate with U.S. intelligence officers, and plan to begin surveillance flights over the Atlantic in July. They will also coordinate military and police patrols at sea to try to intercept Latin American drug vessels before they reach Africa or Europe. "Whichever warship is nearest will take the vessel and the drugs to Portugal," says Edwards, of the European Commission's drug unit...