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Drug Trafficking
The Enforcement Directorate has frozen 110 "mule" bank accounts, seized Rs 70 lakh in cash and found usage of Dubai-based cryptocurrency wallets during searches in a money laundering case linked to alleged drug trafficking in Delhi, a statement said on Sunday. Mule bank accounts are used to transfer illicit funds and are opened by misusing genuine or using fake customer IDs. The raids were undertaken on November 14 after the federal probe agency took cognisance of a Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) complaint of November 2024 related to the seizure of 82.53 kg of "high-grade" cocaine. The ED covered five premises in Delhi-NCR and Jaipur during the searches. The seized party drug was estimated to be worth Rs 900 crore by the NCB and five persons were arrested by the central anti-narcotics agency. "The searches indicated an online betting and gambling network being operated through mobile-based applications. "The operation resulted in the freezing of 110 mule bank accounts, including
A massive police raid on a drug gang embedded in low-income neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro that left at least 119 people dead drew protests for excessive force on Wednesday and calls for the Rio's governor to resign. Dozens of favelas residents gathered in front of the state's government headquarters shouting assassins! and waving Brazilian flags stained with red paint, a day after Rio's deadliest raid and hours after families and residents laid dozens of dead bodies on a street in one of the targeted communities to show the magnitude of the operation. Questions quickly arose about the death count and the state of the bodies, with reports of disfigurement and knife wounds. Brazil's Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers asked Castro to provide detailed information about the operation. This was a massacre, said Barbara Barbosa, a domestic worker from the Penha complex of favelas, one of the two huge communities targeted in the police operation. She said her son was killed in a ..
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the US military carried out another strike on a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing all four people aboard the vessel, as the Trump administration pursues its divisive campaign against drug cartels in the waters off South America. Hegseth said in a social media post that intelligence determined the craft was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. He said the strike was conducted in international waters and no US forces were harmed. A video posted by Hegseth shows a boat exploding into flames and smoke. The Trump administration has been conducting a nearly two-month campaign in the waters off of South America, while building up US military forces in the region. This has fueled speculation that the moves are aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro, whom the US has accused of narcoterrorism. The Trump administration has shown no evidence to suppor
The Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade, sharply escalating tensions with the leftist leader of one of the closest US allies in South America. The Treasury Department levelled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti. Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make clear that we will not tolerate the trafficking of drugs into our nation. The move ramps up a growing clash between the Republican US president and Colombia's first leftist leader, notably over deadly American strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats off South America. This week, the Trump ...
The US military conducted its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel, killing two people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. The Tuesday night strike occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The seven previous strikes all targeted vessels in the Caribbean. According to Hegseth in a social media post, the strike killed two people, bringing the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people. In a brief video released by Hegseth, a small boat, half-filled with brown packages, is seen moving along the water. Several seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is seen floating motionless on the water in flames. In his post, Hegseth took the unusual step of equating the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11, 2001, attack. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people, Hegseth said, adding there will be no refuge or forgiveness only justice. President Donald Trump has justified the .
President Donald Trump said Friday the US military has carried out its third fatal strike against an alleged drug smuggling vessel this month. Trump in a social media posting said the strike killed three and was carried out against a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. He did not provide more precise details about the location of the strike, and the White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans, Trump said in the post. The US twice this month carried out strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels that had originated from Venezuela.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele recalled his ambassador to Mexico and demanded the country clarify its security chief's comments that an intercepted plane carrying cocaine had originated in El Salvador. Bukele labelled the information from Mexico Security Secretary Omar Garca Harfuch as FALSE in a post on X, that went on to detail the plane's alleged flight path. Bukele also pointed out that the three men arrested with the plane were Mexican citizens. El Salvador does not provide cover for criminals nor does it tolerate drug trafficking, Bukele wrote. We didn't do it before, we will not do it now. It wasn't clear late Wednesday if Ambassador Rosa Delmy Canas had left Mexico yet. On Tuesday, Garca Harfuch was summarising drug seizures during the president's daily news briefing when he spoke of a flight detected in the Pacific coast state of Colima that he said had come from El Salvador. He said 428 kilograms of cocaine had been seized and three men arrested without providing mor
Ending drugs trafficking by May 31: that's the ambitious target Punjab Police has set for itself with the force's chief directing all senior officers to firm up plans to cut narcotic supply lines effectively. Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav took the carrot and stick approach to ensure the deadline is met. He announced that Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) and Commissioners of Police (CPs) would be rewarded for their "good work" and held accountable if their performance was not up to the mark. Addressing reporters here, Yadav said Punjab will be made a drug-free state in the sense that the availability of narcotics on the streets is fully culled. The DGP emphasised the decision was a well-considered one and arrived at after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann reviewed the ongoing anti-drug drive "Yudh Nashyan Virudh". "We have asked all field police officers -- the SSPs and CPs -- to lead this campaign from the front so that Punjab can be made drugs-free in the