Drug Cartels Aim to Master the Deep

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»

(NEWSER) - It's not a lark anymore: Miniature submarines now carry about a third of the cocaine smuggled into the US. With the numbers up, the Washington Post takes a look at how these so-called semi-submersibles have gotten more and more high-tech over the last 2 years. Authorities say sub builders are even working on plans to run the fiberglass vessels—most of them built in the jungles of Colombia—via remote control. More»

Drug-makers are destroying Colombia's precious rainforest

(NEWSER) - Colombia is adding a new tactic in its campaign to persuade Americans to stop buying cocaine: a plea for the environment. The government wants to spread the message to users—especially, say, wealthy professionals who dutifully recycle but also partake of the drug—that cocaine growers are running roughshod over the land, the Christian Science Monitor reports. They've cleared 5 million acres of forest in the last 20 years and are now moving into the Amazon. More»

New method confounds drug enforcement efforts

(NEWSER) - Cocaine traffickers have embraced a startling new method to transport their product into America, the Economist reports: homemade submersibles. The cartels themselves seem to be producing the small craft, which descend to just below the waterline. They sport large cargo space and fuel tanks that allow them to sail far out to sea before dropping their payloads. More»

'White, powdery remnants' discovered in Houston's Beverly Hills room

(NEWSER) - Police did indeed find cocaine in the hotel room where Whitney Houston died, reports TMZ . Official documents list "white, powdery remnants" found in the Beverly Hills room, and sources tell the website that the powder tested positive for cocaine. Earlier this month, the LA county coroner declared the singer's death an accidental drowning , with cocaine and heart disease as contributing factors. More»