Operation Panama Express is a long-running Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) comprising participants from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the United States Coast Guard and the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.
According to a March 2006 Congressional testimony by DEA Chief of Operations Michael Braun, Operation Panama Express has resulted in the seizure of 350 metric tons (392 tons) of cocaine and the arrests of 1,107 individuals. The OCDETF is based in Tampa, Florida and focuses primarily on interrupting cocaine shipments en route from South America, especially Colombia.
On September 13, 2008 the U.S. Coast Guard captured a narco submarine about 563 kilometres (350 mi) west of Guatemala; it was carrying seven tons of cocaine.[1] The 59-foot-long, steel and fiberglass craft was detected by a U.S. Navy aircraft as part of Operation Panama Express.
The most notable individual arrested as a result of Operation Panama Express is Colombian Cali cartel kingpin Joaquin Mario Valencia-Trujillo. Valencia was arrested on January 31, 2003 in Bogota, Colombia and extradited in 2004 to the United States. The lead witness in Valencia's trial was Jose Castrillon-Henao, a former Cali cartel maritime smuggling chief who became an FBI informant in 1999. Valencia was sentenced to a prison term of 40 years and ordered to forfeit $110 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operatio...
In 2005, the DEA seized a reported $1.4 billion in drug trade related assets and $477 million worth of drugs.[19] According to the White House's Office of Drug Control Policy, the total value of all of the drugs sold in the U.S. is as much as $64 billion a year,[20] giving the DEA an efficiency rate of less than 1% at intercepting the flow of drugs into and within the U.S. Critics of this theory (including recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Milton Friedman, prior to his death a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) point out that demand for illegal drugs is inelastic; the people who are buying drugs will continue to buy them with little regard to price, often turning to crime to support expensive drug habits when the drug prices rise. One recent study showed that the price of cocaine and methamphetamine is the highest it has ever been while the quality of both is at its lowest point ever.[21] This is contrary to a collection of data done by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which states that purity of street drugs has increased, while price has decreased.[22][23][24] In contrast to the statistics presented by the DEA, the United States Department of Justice released data in 2003 showing that purity of methamphetamine was on the rise.[25]
The DEA was accused in 2005 by the Venezuelan government of collaborating with drug traffickers, after which President Hugo Chávez decided to end any collaboration with the agency. In 2007, after the U.S. State Department criticized Venezuela in its annual report on drug trafficking, the Venezuelan Minister of Justice reiterated the accusations: "A large quantity of drug shipments left the country through that organization,...[]..We were in the presence of a new drug cartel."[42]
The government of Bolivia has also taken similar steps to ban the DEA from operating in the country. In September 2008, Bolivia and the US drastically reduced diplomatic ties with one another, each withdrawing ambassadors from the other country. This occurred soon after Bolivian president Evo Morales expelled all DEA agents from the country due to a revolt in the traditional coca-growing Chapare Province. The Bolivian government claimed that it could not protect the agents, and Morales further accused the agency of helping incite the violence, which claimed 30 lives. National agencies were to take over control of drug management.[43] Three years later, Bolivia and the US began to restore full diplomatic ties. However, Morales maintained that the DEA would remain unwelcome in the country, characterising it as an affront to Bolivia's "dignity and sovereignty".[44]
In the Netherlands, both the Dutch government and the DEA have been criticized for violations of Dutch sovereignty in drug investigations. According to Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch journalist present at the 2005 trial of Henk Orlando Rommy, the DEA has admitted to activities on Dutch soil. Earlier, then Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner, had denied to the Dutch parliament that he had given permission to the DEA for any such activities, which would have been a requirement by Dutch law in order to allow foreign agents to act within the territory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Enf...
No comments:
Post a Comment