Feds Bust Ring that Hid Cocaine in Legos

Transferred cash, drugs across international borders

(NEWSER) - The New York Times last month revealed that undercover US agents have laundered and smuggled millions of dollars for Mexico's drug cartels—and today the paper shines a light on one such operation, in which federal agents helped one drug trafficker and his Colombian supplier move cash and cocaine across international borders. Over a period of months in 2007, US and Mexican agents worked with that supplier—Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, aka "The Rabbit"—who fed cocaine to cartel leader Arturo Beltran Levya, the New York Times reports. More»

Obama administration willing to work more closely with Mexico

(NEWSER) - The US has hatched a plan to embed American intelligence agents in Mexican police units for the first time, in an effort to hunt down drug cartel leaders. In the past, the US has hesitated to share intelligence with Mexican police, viewing them as largely corrupt and incompetent. To avoid those pitfalls, the agents will work with recent graduates of the federal police academy, where FBI and DEA advisers now help train recruits, the Washington Post reports. More»

(NEWSER) - It's the biggest cocaine seizure on the high seas and the second biggest bust in US history: The Coast Guard boarded a Panamanian freighter and discovered, inside cargo containers on deck, 21 tons of cocaine with a street value of $300 Million. "It was fast and furious," says Joseph Evans, DEA attache in Panama. More»

They share abnormalities that make them more vulnerable

(NEWSER) - New hope in the treatment of addiction? A study shows that people hooked on drugs or alcohol have abnormalities in the brain that make them more susceptible. Researchers were able to determine that the abnormalities existed before the addiction set in because they found the same abnormalities in the brains of non-addicted siblings, reports Reuters . Somehow, the siblings managed to stay clean, and further study of how they did that could be key. More»

Kids who score well on IQ tests more likely to score drugs as adults

(NEWSER) - Smartypants kids are much more likely to use all sorts of illegal drugs as teenagers and adults, according to a new study of 8,000 Brits born in 1970. Five-year-olds who scored high IQ scores were more likely to have tried marijuana by age 16, reports the LA Times , and by age 30 high-IQ men were 46% more likely to have used amphetamines in the past year and 65% more likely to have used ecstasy. High-IQ women at age 30 were twice as likely to have used cocaine or marijuana in the previous year. More»