The alcohol lobby successfully opposes the inclusion of alcohol in the Government's anti drug campaign. The campaign begins to look extremely stupid when it ignores alcohol, which kills more people than all illegal substances combined, and concentrates on cannabis, which has not caused a single death in over 5,000 years. Maybe the politicians are required to adhere to the party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison industrial complex, the drug testing industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, and the politicians themselves can't live without the budget justification. Not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies and diminishes many freedoms that are supposed to be inalienable. Myron Von Hollingsworth, Fort Worth, Texas [end]
TRAGIC teenager Kim O'Donovan was described as their treasure by her heartbroken family yesterday. Ronnie and Maura O'Donovan, 15 year old Kim's adoptive parents, revealed their non stop efforts to get help for their beloved daughter throughout her short and troubled life. The couple, from south Co. Dublin, adopted Kim when she was 18 months old and she became a baby sister to big brothers Andrew and Stephen. In a statement issued by their solicitors they said: "Kim grew up in a normal loving, caring family environment. She attended mainstream schools and participated in all the usual children's activities." But sadly, they added: "Kim was always disturbed." They said from an early age they had consulted with Kim's teachers, with child counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists in relation to her problems. [continues 299 words]
THE 15-year-old girl found dead from a suspected drug overdose in a city guesthouse yesterday morning had been missing from a health board residential home for a month. The teenager, whose name has not been released, was on a garda missing list after giving staff the slip and running away while on work experience on July 28. She was found unconscious in the bedroom of a bed and breakfast on Lower Gardiner Street close to Dublin city centre yesterday morning. It is believed she may have been dead for several hours. [continues 424 words]
THANK you for publishing an article about cannabis and the prohibition laws which make criminals of those of us who choose to buy or grow it. Your paper truly lived up to its name. Cannabis is a remarkably benign substance -- far safer than alcohol or tobacco. You may hear politicians say that we should not legalise another drug because that would only make matters worse. When cannabis is available to me I choose it instead of alcohol. Reports from the European Soccer Championship in Amsterdam suggest that fans who might usually get involved in alcohol fuelled troublemaking were content to puff on a joint or three and chat amiably with other fans. [continues 76 words]
Whichever technique of measuring young people's drug use we apply, household surveys, school administered surveys or analysis of official treatment and offending rates, the problem continues to grow. Recently released ISPCC figures created media headlines. These headline figures are, however, subject to a number of ambiguities which need to be better understood if we are to make any progress in understanding the apparent growth in drug taking among young Irish people. Firstly we need to recognise that these figures come as no surprise to young people themselves. In point of fact they suggest that the attitude of young Irish people towards drug taking is at variance with the official or established line on the issue. The trend in Irish drug taking behaviour mirrors that of our nearest neighbour, Britain, insofar as we are witnessing a process of normalisation of recreational drug use amongst young people. The gap between our official attitude towards rule breaking and the experiences of young people engaging in illegal leisure activities is widening. A number of key factors lie behind this trend. [continues 797 words]
Frightening estimates of the real extent of drug addiction in this country are contained in a new report showing that almost 14,000 people are using hard drugs like heroin. According to the first countrywide study of the scale of the crisis, over 8,500 people are hooked on opiates like heroin and methadone, while a further 5,000 use them, but are not yet "problematic users". Significantly, Dr Catherine Comiskey of the National University of Ireland at Maynooth believes that official estimates of only 4,000 addicts "represents a serious underestimate of the true national prevalence of opiate use". [continues 123 words]
Gardai are to send two separate files to the Director of Public Prosecutions following two separate drugs seizures in Cork city over the weekend. Almost pounds 15,000 worth of drugs were recovered. Uniformed and plainclothes gardai recovered pounds 8,000 worth of ecstasy tablets when they stopped and searched three men in their late teens and early 20s at Spring Lane in the Blackpool area of the city at around 8pm on Saturday. Gardai found around 800 ecstasy tablets, arrested the men and brought them to Gurranabraher Garda Station for questioning. [continues 241 words]
Over 8,500 Irish people are addicted to heroin, new research has revealed. A further 5,000 people are taking heroin or methadone, but are not yet problematic users. The report, carried out by Dr Catherine Comiskey of the National University of Ireland Maynooth, is the first country wide prevalence study of opiate heroin and methadone use. In her report, Dr Comiskey points out that the 8,500 figure only refers to problematic users, ie, those seeking treatment or hospital services. [continues 258 words]
A scheme to place recovering drug addicts in the workplace was welcomed by employers and unions yesterday. The pilot programme will provide a link between businesses and the thousands of people attending drug rehabilitation clinics, finding suitable jobs for workers and suitable workers for jobs. New employees will be trained for the job in mind and assigned a co worker as a mentor when they take up their position. A company awareness programme will also be devised for their bosses and other colleagues to help them cope with the practical and personal issues involved. [continues 280 words]
A luxury mansion used for trafficking drugs from North Africa to Europe has been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The pounds 1 million home in Sneem, County Kerry is owned by Jan Hendrik Ijpelaar, a notorious and wealthy Dutch trafficker in ecstasy and cannabis. The property, featuring tennis courts, a swimming pool, stables and an accompanying island, was used by Ijpelaar, 53, to land drugs from North Africa before shipping them on to Northern Europe. The High Court granted the Criminal Assets Bureau an order for possession and sale of the pounds 1 million mansion and island. [continues 400 words]
"GOD makes the earth yield healing herbs, which the prudent man should not neglect"(Sirach:38:4). Well, quite -- or as the legendary vernacular would have it, God made grass, man made booze -- who do you trust? Cannabis sativa, that hardy adaptable plant that grows everywhere from your window box to the mountains of Asia, Africa and America, has been cultivated by ourselves for over 10,000 years. You would, however, be (almost) forgiven for thinking that it is a highly addictive, dangerous drug, so draconian and misleading is our current legislation, which classifies a gram of cannabis resin to be more harmful and potentially lethal than, say, a crate of whiskey. [continues 1167 words]
The seizure of assets held by a convicted international narcotics dealer by the Criminal Assets Bureau will send out a loud and clear message that there is no place in Ireland for so called drug barons. This seizure marks yet another major success by the Irish authorities against the worldwide drugs mafia. Some indication of the vast wealth amassed by major drug dealers can be gleaned from the scale of the property near Sneem on the Ring of Kerry. Besides containing superb antique furniture and a costly art collection, the 15 acre ground has a swimming pool, tennis courts and landscaped gardens. The luxury property, valued at pounds 1.5 million, also includes an island just off the coast. Its owner, a 53 year old Dutch, national is a major trafficker in cannabis and ecstasy and the island may have been used to bring drugs into Ireland and Europe. [continues 68 words]
A rogue ecstasy tablet linked to the deaths of drug users around the world could soon be on sale in Ireland. The deadly drug has already claimed the lives of users in Germany and other parts of Europe, as well as the US and Australia, and the Garda Drug Squad fears it will soon be on sale in Ireland. "Almost all the ecstasy sold here comes from Holland. If dodgy tablets are being made there, it is only a matter of time before they become available here," a drug squad officer said. [continues 322 words]
IMAGINE ... you're 15. You left home because you couldn't stick the sexual abuse anymore. You didn't know where to go for help, so you started sleeping rough. You're so scared of being attacked that you don't get any rest. Someone told you that you might be able to get a hostel bed if you go to a garda station, but you're worried they might send you home to your father. Your savings run out, so you start begging to get money for food. You feel so lonely and depressed that you're tempted to start taking the drugs that are being offered to you. Anything to block out the pain. [continues 817 words]
The Government has announced a new drugs advisory committee to tackle the country's growing crisis. Junior Minister Eoin Ryan made the announcement yesterday after the Merchant Quay project revealed that drug abuse in Dublin has increased by 28% in one year. The national advisory committee will hold its inaugural meeting in September and will oversee a three-year research project designed to help the Government tackle the abuse of heroin and other hard drugs. With an annual budget of pounds 1 million the programme will examine all areas of drug misuse under the headings of prevalence, prevention, treatment and research. [continues 222 words]
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan last week announced a plan to issue city ID cards allowing sick people to use cannabis. The cards, which cost $25 and require a doctor's note, allow patients to avoid local prosecution if caught possessing the drug. US District Judge Charles R Breyer is expected to decide if an Oakland club is allowed to distribute medicinal marijuana. He hinted last week he may be forced to permit it because the US Justice Department hasn't rebutted evidence that cannabis is the only effective treatment for a large group of seriously ill people. Governor Gray Davis has approved spending $3 million over three years to research the benefits and efficacy of cannabis, which is used by some to ease the pain of terminal or chronic illness. [continues 222 words]
A Yugoslav gangster has told Dutch police that he fired the shots which killed Irish drugs dealer, Derek "Maradona" Dunne in Amsterdam early last month. The murder suspect has apparently claimed, during police interrogation, that he fired in self defence, hitting 33 year old Dunne. The 31 year old Dutch based member of a notorious Yugoslav drugs gang, together with a second Yugoslav man and a 26 year old Dutchman, were picked up in recent days and have been remanded in custody. [continues 290 words]
People who are thrown out of their local authority housing for anti social behaviour, which is frequently drug related, can find themselves with no place to go. National housing organisation Threshold, which examined how the 1997 Housing Act impacts on anti social tenants, said such exclusion is not the only answer. Calling for a range of solutions to tackle the issue, it proposes that alternative housing solutions be developed. These should take into account the needs of both the community and the drug user. [continues 306 words]
SWEEPING changes to be considered by the Government in its review of the National Drugs Strategy were submitted yesterday. The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) has warned the Government it must not confine the National Drugs Strategy to major cities only, as the problem effects every county. NYCI president James Doorley says the misuse of drugs by young people is continuing to grow. "More young people come into contact with and misuse drugs than ever before. More and more drugs are available to young people, drugs are easier to obtain and there is a continuing and ample supply," he warned. [continues 252 words]
Health experts fighting a mystery illness striking heroin users say bacteria blamed in Britain may not be the cause of outbreak here. Scientists in the UK announced a breakthrough a fortnight ago when a soil based bacterium, called Clostridium A, was found in the bloodstream of patients believed to have used contaminated heroin. But health officials here are still unable to confirm if the same bug is responsible for eight deaths and 14 other cases of severe infections in heroin addicts in Dublin. [continues 65 words]
NEXT Monday will mark the fourth anniversary of the murder of Veronica Guerin. She was honoured in Boston last week by the Vienna based International Press Institute, and this prompted an extensive profile in the Boston Globe on Sunday. Before her murder ``organised crime was all but ignored and gangland leaders operated with relative impunity'', the Globe noted. Despite the tightening of laws dealing with organised crime following her killing, the reporter noted that today ``Ireland is awash in drugs'' and organised crime ``has never been more profitable''. [continues 1092 words]
A NUMBER of Dublin pubs have been put on 28 day notice to rid their premises of drug users and dealers in the latest crackdown by gardai on the drug scourge in the capital. Publicans risk losing their licence for good if they fail to meet the deadline for getting their house in order. A senior garda involved in the crackdown, codenamed Operation Nightcap, said it was getting the message through to pub owners that they could no longer turn a blind eye to the conduct of their customers. [continues 419 words]
EXTRA drug officers will be drafted into Limerick City after pounds 3.3m worth of drugs were confiscated there last year. Limerick City Supt. Noel O'Sullivan told a conference in the city yesterday that 80% of the drugs seized was cannabis, 15% ecstasy, 2% cocaine and a very small portion of heroin. The Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport & Recreation, Eoin Ryan, said he was aware that young people were experimenting with drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy in almost every town and city in Ireland. [continues 108 words]
A SOIL BASED bacteria that thrives in dead flesh has been identified as the heroin contaminant which caused the deaths of 37 addicts in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Clostridium novyi Type A is the name of the bacteria which health experts believe caused the deaths of the 36 injecting heroin users. Experts at the Public Health Laboratory Service in Cardiff, Wales, and at the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, are now satisfied that the bacteria clostridium novyi Type A is the source of the illness which baffled health chiefs since it first emerged in Glasgow on April 19. [continues 367 words]
A deadly bacteria which can survive attacks of heat and acid has been blamed for 30 deaths of heroin addicts in Ireland and Britain over the last six weeks. Last night, it emerged that scientists now believe that bacteria from the clostridia family has infected supplies of the hard drug over the last two months. The deadly infection has resisted the strongest antibiotics used against it by doctors in Dublin, Scotland and north west England over the last six weeks. Addicts were warned last night that the bacteria will remain dangerous in any other infected supplies "for months to come" if it is injected into the muscles. [continues 102 words]
IT was disturbing to read in a recent Irish Examiner editorial that there are 13,000 drug addicts in Dublin alone. I do hope Ireland has a more enlightened approach to dealing with drugs and AIDS than America. Studies in Australia and New Zealand have proven that needle exchange programmes reduce dramatically the rate of cross contamination of AIDS and other viruses. It is far more effective, both in human and economic terms, to finance drug rehabilitation rather that spending billions on prisons as America is doing. Americaís drug war has more to do with corporate welfare for campaign donors than helping the chemically dependent. [continues 56 words]
HOSPITALS remain on alert after another death from the mystery illness striking heroin addicts was confirmed yesterday. Officials from the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) have now formally identified 15 cases of the illness among heroin users in the region. A female drug user who died on Wednesday morning was yesterday identified as the second woman to die and the eighth fatality in total. A further four people are still receiving treatment in hospital and three others have been discharged. Tests concluded yesterday ruled out the illness as the cause of 11 other drugs related deaths investigated by the ERHA, but the most recent death dashed hopes that the illness had run its course as it was the first fresh case in a week. [continues 368 words]
Gardai and health officials fear there could be many more victims of a mystery illness striking heroin addicts than originally thought. It is now thought that up to 14 people have died. With the death toll rising, detectives and drugs experts from the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) were last night cross checking details of heroin related deaths in their records to determine exactly how many have died. The ERHA has recorded 14 admissions to hospital of patients suffering the same symptoms of the unexplained illness in the last fortnight. Seven of those patients, all from Dublin, have died. [continues 358 words]
THE world renowned Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, probably first became known to Irish audiences via the make believe world of the movies. In the film Outbreak, two infectious disease experts - handsome and beautiful respectively - raced against the clock to save an American town - apple pie and white picket fences - from a deadly and wildly contagious virus. The killer bug came from a monkey in the South American jungle, the baddies were the Government who wanted its existence hushed up, and the hero and heroine - romantically linked of course - found the cure just in time to stop the army bombing the helpless townsfolk into oblivion. [continues 834 words]
Fear of contaminated heroin is driving addicts to treatment centres for help to break their habit. Over 70 chronic drug users have turned up at clinics in the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) area, asking to be assessed for treatment in the last few days. Their pleas for help follow the admission to hospital of 14 seriously ill addicts suffering from an unidentified illness. Seven of the 14 have since died after suffering severe abscesses and swelling all over their bodies. The ERHA has been encouraging all heroin users to stop using the drug and come forward for assessment to see what alternatives or treatments can be made available to them. [continues 263 words]
New measures to fight international drug barons were agreed on by the European Union yesterday. But new figures from the World Customs Organisation show the scale of the task ahead. In 1999, customs officers and police around the world captured 4,250 tonnes of narcotics, which would have been worth around pounds 50 billion to criminals on the street. Most of the seizures are high bulk cannabis shipments, weighing in at 3,800 tonnes. The cocaine haul amounted to 420 tonnes. However, just 36 tonnes of heroin was found in time. [continues 359 words]
FAMILY doctors who have unnecessarily prescribed tranquillisers to recovering drug addicts should be disqualified from practice, an ex member of a European anti-drugs agency warned yesterday. Almost two thirds of clients at Eastern Health Board drug treatment clinics last year tested positive for benzodiazepines, a tranquilliser normally prescribed for insomnia and nervous disorders. The sedative is sometimes administered under strict supervision by drug addiction centres. Concerns have regularly been raised in the medical profession that general practitioners have been giving prescriptions for the substance to drug addicts, purely for their own financial gain. [continues 199 words]
CHILDREN as young as nine are experimenting with alcohol and cigarettes, according to a new report. The survey also found more than one in five in the 15 to 16 year old age bracket smoke on a regular basis. A third of them are drinking and just under one in five is using drugs, particularly cannabis. Up to 5% of the teenagers polled have taken solvents, LSD, amphetamines and ecstasy. The latest figures come from two major research studies conducted in 1997 and 1998 by the Southern Health Board. The findings spurred the Board to develop new, preventative literature for schools. The `Guidelines for Schools on Developing Policy on Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug use' were launched yesterday by Health Minister, Micheal Martin, and will be distributed to all schools in the region. [continues 326 words]
An unexplained severe illness may be responsible for the deaths of seven heroin users since the beginning of this month. A total of 14 addicts have been admitted to hospitals in Dublin with the mystery illness since May 1. The cases all appear to be similar to the recent Glasgow cluster of heroin deaths believed to be caused by contaminated heroin. The ERHA's department of public health wants to establish if the cases share common risks and to determine the cause of the illness. [continues 75 words]
Mobile methadone units are to be dispatched to areas of Dublin without treatment centres in response to the spate of heroin related deaths in the past fortnight. Health chiefs have issued an alert amid fears that contaminated heroin may have killed eight drug addicts in the capital. The coroner has been asked to investigate five of the mystery deaths, while three are already the subject of a garda investigation. It emerged last night that two other heroin users are still being treated in hospital for an unidentified illness, while a further three were also treated and discharged. [continues 365 words]
Drug driving is emerging as a major menace on roads, a study reveals. Of drivers stopped on suspicion of drink driving, more than one in three were found to have been driving under the influence of narcotics. The problem is now so widespead a high level road safety group at the Department of the Environment is examining the issue. Remember 37% of the positive drug samples were from people who were under the legal limit for alcohol, Professor Denis Cusack, of University College Dublin's medical bureau of road safety, who headed the study team, said. [continues 327 words]
The interception by the Customs National Drugs Team of the British registered Posidonia and its pounds 15 million cargo of cannabis is proof that drug smugglers regard the south west coast as a soft spot. Last November, the Naval Services press officer based in Haulbowline Lieutenant Commander Hugh Tully said a drug trafficker's chance of landing undetected shipments in Ireland was over 20 times greater than on other European coastlines. Lt Cmdr Tully said it was almost certain that other significant shipments of drugs and arms have been landed on the Irish coast. [continues 328 words]
Ecstasy may be turning thousands of young people into sluggish dim wits - and the effects could be permanent, new research revealed today. Scientists found that taking the drug harms the mechanism in the brain responsible for learning and thinking quickly. More worryingly, former users who had not taken ecstasy for at least six months were equally affected, implying that the damage is long term or even irreversible. Psychologist Michelle Wareing, who led the study, said: ‘‘we are talking about a brain mechanism that’s involved in learning new tasks. Ecstasy users, therefore, may not pick up things so quickly. They’ll be a bit slow on the uptake. As soon as there’s a bit of pressure, that’s when they are going to have problems. So it could affect performance at work, or in exams if you are a student.’’ [continues 332 words]
Dutch detectives will today seek to extend the detention of a man arrested in connection with the brutal slaying of three young Irishmen a fortnight ago. The unidentified man was arrested in Wassanaar, a small town seven miles outside the Hague, shortly after 9pm on Wednesday and questioned throughout yesterday by police. Today, he will be taken before a judge at a private hearing when police will seek to try and hold him until Monday. Then, three judges can extend his detention for another 30 days. [continues 248 words]
A major international operation by Irish Custom and Excise officers has culminated in an order by Judge Elizabeth Dunne at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for the forfeiture by an Irish drugs gang of pounds 52,105 sterling which was seized in 1998. Judge Dunne granted the application by the Director of Public Prosecutions for the forfeiture of the money which was seized on March 9, 1998 by Customs and Excise officer Roisin Wiseman at Dublin Airport from a man named Stephen Paul Newman who had just been booked on a flight to London. [continues 248 words]
Police in the Netherlands and the gardai are now satisfied there was a direct link between the recent killings in the Hague and the seizure of pounds 8 millions worth of drugs and guns near Castleblainey, Co. Monaghan over a year ago. More than 700 kilos of cannabis and 25 machine pistols destined for the Real IRA were seized when the gardai raided a lorry outside a cold store plant in Castleblainey. The illicit cargo which was shipped from Amsterdam was hidden in pallets of bread. [continues 61 words]
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell has said the use of heroin has reached epidemic proportions in the city after he heard six inquests involving its use at the Coroner's Court yesterday. In one inquest, he heard that a man who arrived home in an agitated state fell from a fifth-floor balcony in Ballymun, Dublin, a short time after he left his apartment to take his dogs for a walk. Ms Catherine Joyce told the inquest how she tried to hang on to her partner, Larry O'Toole jnr, after he called to her and she found him hanging from the balcony outside their flat about 4.30 a.m. last September 17th. [continues 372 words]
Revenge may have been the motive behind the gruesome mutilation and murder of three young Irishmen. It is now believed that the drugs gang who killed three young Irishmen believed their victims had passed information about drug shipments to the authorities. The killings were in revenge for the interception by Irish and Dutch police forces of drug shipments. Irish and Dutch police have had a remarkable string of success in thwarting the illegal importation of drugs into this country in recent months. [continues 554 words]
AN international drugs gang, suspected of having mutilated, shot and burned three Irishmen found in their gutted luxury apartment near the Hague at the weekend, could be holding two other hostages. Last night, Dutch police said they had discovered five passports in the apartment where the savage butchery took place. The three men's genitalia were understood to have been cut off before they were shot and burned. Passports found at the scene of the grisly murders were the property of Damien Monaghan from Ennis and brothers Vincent and Morgan Costello from Bansha, County Tipperary. Dutch police, with the co-operation of the garda authorities, were still trying to establish if the passports were those of the murdered men. [continues 458 words]
35,000 people died violently in Colombia last year. But US attempts to eradicate the country’s drug trade, will only lead to more deaths, argues Eamonn Meehan, Trocaire’s Head of Overseas Department Colombia is a country at war. The conflict which has gone on for over 50 years has recently intensified and is set to become even more vicious with new plans to attempt to forcibly eradicate the production of the coca plant, the main source of cocaine on the US market. [continues 1163 words]
THE high level of co operation at international level in the fight against drugs witnessed at a major police conference being held in Dublin is to be warmly welcomed in view of the growing incidence of addiction among young Irish people. As an integral part of the world wide fight against crime, six police forces have combined their resources in a bid to combat the so called drug barons who ply their evil trade on the streets of Europe's towns and cities. [continues 163 words]
CHILDREN as young as 12 years of age are sleeping rough on streets and are in danger of becoming drug addicts, experts warned yesterday. An initiative to discourage young people sleeping rough from becoming involved in drug abuse received high praise from President Mary McAleese yesterday. The Cork Simon Community Youth Homeless Drug Prevention was established late last year to provide early intervention through intensive outreach. Almost one fifth of the 1,094 people using Cork Simon Community's emergency shelter last year were under the age of 25. [continues 178 words]
AN international crime busting programme pioneered by the gardai has clocked up millions of pounds in drugs seizures in its year long pilot phase. Now members of the force here and in the five neighbouring countries involved are hoping the European Commission will agree to fund it into the future. The intelligence gathering programme, set up last year with pounds 70,000 EU funding and pounds 30,000 support from the Government, is coming to the end of its term. But with 14 seizures and 56 arrests under its belt in less than seven months, senior officers are eager to see its work continued. [continues 320 words]
THE establishment of a US-style drugs court in Dublin is set to have a major impact on the rehabilitation of non-violent drug offenders. Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Eoin Ryan, said the proposal to establish the court on a pilot basis in Dublin’s north inner city, with up to 100 offenders being offered the chance to rehabilitate themselves, is likely to prove very successful. “It’s something a lot of people have been calling for. Rather than seeing their son or daughter going to prison, families now have an option of going for rehab.” [continues 371 words]
SPAIN has become Europe's ''primary clearing house,'' for drugs, with Spaniards themselves largely responsible for letting international criminal organisations infest the country, according to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, a non profit organisation that monitors drug trafficking. In a 248 page report, the Paris based organisation said that Spain has emerged as a ''gigantic drug bazaar'' where criminal groups trade goods and services. The Geopolitical Drug Watch, or OGD, cited alleged corruption among elected officials, police, the judiciary - and even chemistry professors. It cited, for example, police officers and judicial officials in Galicia, in northern Spain, acting as informants for drug traffickers. [continues 175 words]
