Africa is becoming an increasingly important hub for Latin American drug trafficking networks, facilitating the production, transportation, and marketing of cocaine and methamphetamine. Africa has for decades been a transit point for Latin American cocaine making its way to European markets. The explosion in demand for cocaine and synthetic stimulants (notably methamphetamine), coupled with growing…
Take Ozempic. For the average patient in the U.S. paying out of pocket, the blockbuster diabetes drug can cost $349 to more than $1,000 a month. It’s $349 through TrumpRx. Yet in several other wealthy countries, the next-highest price is $190 a month, according to KFF, a nonpartisan research group. Enbrel is an even starker…
Bolivia’s attorney general arrested for alleged money laundering and drug trafficking U.S.-sanctioned Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering and drug trafficking, with police finding bundles of cash smuggled out of his house, the government said Thursday. Mariaca was arrested on Wednesday night in the eastern city of Santa…
Africa is pouring money into pharmaceutical manufacturing as governments seek to reduce dependence on imported medicines. The bigger challenge may be finding enough buyers to keep the factories running. About 70% to 80% of medicines consumed in Africa are imported, according to the Access to Medicine Foundation. The continent also relies on overseas suppliers for…
In South Africa, the debate about protecting young people from drugs is increasingly raising a different question: are current policies actually helping those who need support most? Charity Monareng, Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy International, said answering that question requires looking beyond prevention and asking whether young people have meaningful access to…
New York — Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife asked a judge on Wednesday to dismiss the drug trafficking indictment against them on the grounds that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country. In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for Maduro said a judge was…
The apparent rise of trafficking by older adults could reflect a new criminal adaptation rather than individual criminality. Adults aged 50 and over are becoming more visible in West African drug operations, although data availability and official understandings of this phenomenon vary across states. Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) website suggests that at…
The recent wave of unprecedented cocaine seizures across West Africa is no longer a series of isolated criminal incidents. Instead, the arrests, investigations, and intelligence emerging from multiple jurisdictions increasingly point to a sophisticated transnational narcotics network stretching from Latin America through West Africa into Europe. At the center of this network is Dutch fugitive…
More people are using drugs than ever before, while synthetic substances are reshaping illicit markets and exposing vulnerable communities to greater health risks, according to the UN World Drug Report 2026, released on Friday. “We have seen an unprecedented spike in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or…
The U.S. military conducted another strike in the Caribbean on Sunday against a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the region, killing two people and leaving six survivors, the Defense Department said, amid an ongoing campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. The latest attack — which now number more than 60 — brings the number…
