By Christopher S. Wren WASHINGTON The Clinton administration's drug policy adviser, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, argued Wednesday before sometimes skeptical senators that the best hope of stopping illegal drugs from crossing the southwestern border lies in helping Mexico reform its corrupt police and weak legal systems, rather than merely criticizing their flaws. Testifying at a joint session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, McCaffrey said the administration's strategy of working in partnership with Mexico to fight drugs was beginning to reap benefits. [continues 436 words]
MEXICO CITY (AP) The body of a former federal drug prosecutor in the northern state of Chihuahua was found Wednesday stuffed in an oil drum in the central state of Morelos. The body of Fernando Pascual Velez, 47, bore signs of torture, the government news agency Notimex reported. Local news media said it appeared the man had been strangled. A coworker said Pascual Velez was working as a criminal lawyer in Mexico City when he disappeared a week ago, but may also have been investigating drug trafficking. The body was found by highway police at a garage on the road leading from Mexico City to nearby Cuernavaca. [continues 171 words]
COLUMBIA, S.C.Following up on a ruling that found a viable fetus is a person covered by the state's child abuse laws, the state Supreme Court has upheld a woman's conviction for taking drugs while pregnant. The court ruled 3/2 for the second time in as many years to uphold the conviction of Cornelia Whitner, who gave birth to a baby boy with cocaine in his blood. Ms. Whitner, whose son is living with relatives, was sentenced to eight years in prison for child neglect in 1992 after her newborn tested positive for cocaine. A judge freed her 19 months later, saying child abuse laws do not apply to prenatal actions. [continues 256 words]
The Mike Hernandez case is full of hypocrisy. First of all, there's City Councilman Hernandez himself, who has admitted being addicted to cocaine and drinking a quart of tequila a night while sponsoring street signs on Pico Boulevard proclaiming "No Drugs, No Graffiti, the Neighborhood Is Watching." Not nearly in the same class, but also eligible for the hypocrites league are the members of the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Richard Riordan, who are demanding that Hernandez resign. They've relegated Hernandez's povertystricken 1st District to the back of the bus for years, and are turning their attention to it, and its councilman, only after being bombarded with communications from constituents demanding his ouster. [continues 762 words]
A group of police allegedly involved in drug dealing offered a bribe to an officer in the Victoria Police air wing to spot a large marijuana crop that could be stolen and sold, an internal investigation has found. Documents obtained by The Age show that although the offer of the $10,000 bribe was substantiated, no action was taken against the officer. Inquiries into other members of the group, who were alleged to have stolen drug crops from the back yards of private homes and sold them, were blown when one of them was tipped off. [continues 486 words]
Cops posing as drug dealers arrested 72 wouldbe marijuana buyers in an unprecedented "reverse sting" in Washington Square Park, Mayor Giuliani said yesterday. The sting operation, in which cops sell real marijuana, began in the Greenwich Village park last Wednesday and will be expanded to six more parks this week. Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir announced the drug arrests during a ceremony at Brooklyn's Maria Hernandez Park named after a community activist who was murdered the day before she was supposed to testify against a dealer. [continues 308 words]
Reuters News Service MIAMI U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday they were prepared to try again to convict two U.S. lawyers of committing crimes for Colombia's Cali drug cartel after the first five month trial ended in a nearstalemate. On Monday, the 12member jury said that it had acquitted attorneys Michael Abbell and William Moran on one count of conspiracy in the case, but was deadlocked on four other charges against the two men, both former federal prosecutors. On Wednesday, senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler declared a mistrial on the undecided counts. [continues 251 words]