https://sagire.online/topic/drug-trafficking/ Rolling analysis and coverage of geopolitics, energy, security and supply chains. en Thu, 05 Nov 2026 02:48:00 -0300 https://sagire.online/wire/9d17585e/https://sagire.online/wire/9d17585e/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 11:22:00 -0300Recent discoveries of methamphetamine laboratories in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique have fueled concerns that Africa is becoming a significant production hub for synthetic drugs. In Nigeria, an operation in Ogun State led to the arrest of 10 suspects, including three Mexican nationals whom the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said had been brought into the country to help manufacture the drug. The agency’s chairman, Mohamed Buba Marwa, said officers seized more than 2.4 metric tons of methamphetamine, precursor chemicals and other materials with an estimated international market value of about $363 million.NigeriaAfricaDrug trafficking https://sagire.online/wire/c374bfb6/https://sagire.online/wire/c374bfb6/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 10:21:00 -0300A strike against alleged members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela’s Apure state, near the Colombian border, had US intelligence and drone support, according to four US officials quoted by the New York Times. The operation took place last Friday, and a senior Venezuelan military officer confirmed the attack. Fundaredes, the first organization to raise the alarm, counted 23 dead and an undetermined number of wounded in the bombing of an ELN base used as a cocaine distribution center, based on testimony from survivors and local residents that the Times collected. Local reporters with Alianza Rebelde Investiga identified eight of the dead — including two Colombians and four Mexicans — using information from the morgue, the hospital and the San Fernando de Apure cemetery. Venezuelan authorities counted 19 dead in the operation so far, a lower toll than Fundaredes’. The attack came after the United States forcibly removed Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s government came under the control of an administration aligned with Donald Trump, according to Infobae, in a New York Times text.VenezuelaUnited StatesDrug traffickingDronesLatin America https://sagire.online/apure-bombardeio-sem-balanco/https://sagire.online/apure-bombardeio-sem-balanco/Sun, 01 Nov 2026 17:28:00 -0300Drones hit a guerrilla camp in southern Apure on October 30 and the army that operates them has published no toll: 19 dead by one count, around 20 by another, nine bodies in a morgue in San Fernando. Five years after an operation that ended with the force withdrawn and 12 soldiers hostage, the target changed, the method changed, and the only record is the one a human rights group wrote.VenezuelaColombiaLatin AmericaCritical mineralsDrug trafficking https://sagire.online/wire/98e6b2f5/https://sagire.online/wire/98e6b2f5/Thu, 29 Oct 2026 23:22:00 -0300Colombia’s president, Abelardo de la Espriella, ordered on Thursday the temporary militarization of Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela, amid a wave of violence and killings by illegal groups, a city that in recent days saw the murder of a mayoral hopeful and a bombing that left four police officers wounded.ColombiaVenezuelaDrug traffickingPublic security https://sagire.online/wire/521c412d/https://sagire.online/wire/521c412d/Thu, 29 Oct 2026 05:22:00 -0300Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan more than quadrupled this year compared with 2025 to an estimated 43,300 hectares, according to Reuters, based on satellite imagery analyzed by the UN, and rose to more than 43,000 hectares in 2026, with traders’ income from opium estimated at around 525 million dollars, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).AfghanistanDrug traffickingSouth Asia https://sagire.online/wire/0e2822ea/https://sagire.online/wire/0e2822ea/Thu, 29 Oct 2026 03:22:00 -0300Agence France-Presse (AFP) identified major construction work near the runway of Taura air base, in Ecuador, about 20 American military flights between June and mid-October and documents mentioning the presence of United States troops. The expansion comes less than a year after Ecuadorians rejected the installation of foreign military bases in the country in a referendum.United StatesEcuadorDrug trafficking https://sagire.online/wire/48ac0a72/https://sagire.online/wire/48ac0a72/Thu, 29 Oct 2026 02:23:00 -0300A bombing by the Colombian Armed Forces against a Clan del Golfo structure in the department of Chocó left at least six dead and one captured, according to a preliminary toll confirmed by President Abelardo de la Espriella, who said the toll so far is six killed and one captured, “but there are more”.ColombiaLatin AmericaDrug traffickingConflict https://sagire.online/wire/2b47f112/https://sagire.online/wire/2b47f112/Wed, 28 Oct 2026 16:23:00 -0300Alvin Hellerstein, the US federal judge handling the case against Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolás Maduro, has died at 92, the federal court for the Southern District of New York confirmed, according to Le Monde. Maduro’s trial had been due to open on July 1, 2027. Hellerstein was one of the oldest US federal judges, and questions had been raised about whether he was the right judge to preside over what could be a prolonged trial of Maduro on drug-trafficking charges, according to the South China Morning Post.United StatesVenezuelaJusticeDrug trafficking https://sagire.online/wire/f557629c/https://sagire.online/wire/f557629c/Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:24:00 -0300US Southern Command (Southcom) said it killed five “narcoterrorists” in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific on Tuesday, saying that “confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in drug trafficking,” according to G1. At least 235 people have been killed in strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific, according to an AFP tally cited by G1. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on the United States to halt the strikes and cited the “extrajudicial execution of people on board these vessels”, regardless of the alleged criminal conduct against them.United StatesDrug traffickingHuman rightsUnited Nations https://sagire.online/wire/067f8684/https://sagire.online/wire/067f8684/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:23:00 -0300Argentina declared five criminal groups and guerrilla organizations from Latin America as terrorist organizations, including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, according to the Associated Press (AP). The resolution also covers the Nueva Familia Michoacana, also of Mexico, and Ecuador's Los Tiguerones. AP notes that the move follows the security policy of the United States, Argentina's main ally in the region.ArgentinaLatin AmericaDrug traffickingJustice https://sagire.online/wire/7a793fa4/https://sagire.online/wire/7a793fa4/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:22:00 -0300Federal prosecutors in Mexico charged former Chihuahua attorney general César Jáuregui Moreno with treason for allowing US agents to join a raid on a suspected drug lab in April without federal authorization, the BBC reported. Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said Jáuregui had allowed foreign agents to carry out activities reserved for Mexican authorities and had failed to share information; he denies the allegations and was arrested on the weekend, with a court hearing scheduled for Saturday. The case came to light after two US agents said to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) died in a car crash in Chihuahua along with two Mexican law enforcement officers, on April 19.MexicoUnited StatesDrug traffickingJustice https://sagire.online/wire/115e6c21/https://sagire.online/wire/115e6c21/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 04:21:00 -0300The Pentagon will send hundreds of troops to Latin America, according to The New York Times, in a report published Wednesday (14) and cited by G1. The first members of a battalion of about 600 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division have begun moving to a jungle training center in Panama. The expansion also includes transferring MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador and creating a new command structure for Western Hemisphere operations based in Miami.United StatesLatin AmericaPanamaDefenseDrug trafficking https://sagire.online/wire/65cf37bb/https://sagire.online/wire/65cf37bb/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 08:23:00 -0300Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters put forward six proposals to strengthen cooperation among Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in combating illicit drugs and related crimes, according to the Tehran Times. The proposals include strengthening the regional early warning system on synthetic drugs and new psychoactive substances and cooperation in countering chemical precursors used in the illicit manufacturing of narcotic drugs.IranDrug traffickingDiplomacyCentral Asia https://sagire.online/wire/d731a131/https://sagire.online/wire/d731a131/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 04:24:00 -0300At least 600 US troops will take part in training and exercises with local forces in Panama, Colombia and Honduras, the New York Times reported, as cited by G1. US drones were redirected from Africa to Ecuador and Colombia and are to be used in operations against drug trafficking, according to G1.United StatesLatin AmericaDrug traffickingDefense https://sagire.online/wire/d546d3e2/https://sagire.online/wire/d546d3e2/Thu, 15 Oct 2026 22:22:00 -0300President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday (15), in an interview with TV Globo, that the First Command of the Capital (PCC) and the Red Command (CV) terrorize Brazilian communities, but rejected framing the gangs as terrorist organizations in the terms backed by the US government, according to Brasil 247. Lula said he handed US President Donald Trump a written proposal for cooperation against organized crime and drug trafficking based on the experience of the Federal Police.BrazilUnited StatesPublic securityDrug trafficking