Former Ajax star and Netherlands international Quincy Promes is being prosecuted by Dutch authorities for helping to smuggle 1,370 kilograms of cocaine into Europe. Promes spent two years with Ajax between 2019 and 2021, scoring 22 goals in 53 appearances for the Dutch giants. He left for Spartak Moscow in February 2021 but now finds himself in hot water back in the Netherlands. The country’s Public Prosecution Service have confirmed that Promes has been accused of attempting to smuggle in two batches of about 650 kilos and 713 kilos. These were intercepted in the port of Antwerp in January 2020. Together the … Continue reading Ex-Ajax and Netherlands star prosecuted for smuggling 1,370kg of cocaine

As friends and family looked on, rapper Fetty Wap on Wednesday apologised for his actions and said he was “exactly where I’m supposed to be”, before a judge sentenced him to six years in federal prison for his role in a New York-based drug-trafficking scheme. The Trap Queen rapper, whose legal name is Willie Maxwell, pleaded guilty in August 2022 to a conspiracy drug charge that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. The sentence was handed down in federal court on Long Island. Maxwell told US District judge Joanna Seybert: “Me being selfish in my pride put me … Continue reading Rapper Fetty Wap jailed for six years for his part in drug trafficking plot

Mexico’s public prosecutor has blocked the release from jail of notorious drug lord Héctor Palma, hours after a judge ordered that he should be freed. Palma, 63, founded the powerful Sinaloa cartel with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and has spent the past 28 years in jails in the US and in Mexico. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in 2005. However, a judge said on Tuesday there was not enough proof to hold him on separate charges of organised crime. Palma’s criminal career was portrayed in the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico. Judge María Dolores Olarte ruled that the arguments presented … Continue reading Mexico blocks the release of Sinaloa cartel’s ex-leader Hector Palma

Singapore is set to hang a man for trafficking cannabis, in the city-state’s latest controversial execution. Activists say Tangaraju Suppiah was convicted on weak evidence. Authorities say he received due process, and have scheduled his execution for Wednesday. It follows a high-profile execution last year of a mentally disabled man over a drugs charge. Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws, which it says are necessary to protect society. In recent days his family members and activists delivered letters to Singapore’s president Halimah Yacob in a last-minute plea for clemency, while British billionaire Sir Richard Branson has called for … Continue reading Singapore to execute man over cannabis charge

Italian police have seized around two tonnes (2,000kg) of cocaine that was found floating off the coast of Sicily, in one of the country’s largest ever finds of illegal drugs. Some 70 waterproof packages were found held together by fishing nets and equipped with a tracking device. Police put the haul’s street value at more than €400m. Officers believe the drugs were dumped at sea by a cargo ship in order to be recovered later. The packages, made up of around 1,600 bricks of drugs, were spotted by a navy surveillance plane, police said. Continue reading Italian police seize two tonnes of cocaine floating in the sea

Police in Latin America have seized cocaine and other drugs worth $5bn in an operation lasting three weeks and spanning 15 countries. They also seized more than 8,000 illicit firearms and carried out almost 15,000 arrests. Police forces from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south exchanged information in the operation, which was co-ordinated by Interpol. Interpol said the arrests had disrupted the workings of several powerful gangs. Dubbed Trigger IX, the international effort was mainly aimed at fighting the trafficking of illicit firearms. Experts from the participating countries gathered at a centre of operations in Foz do … Continue reading Interpol special operation in Latin America nets $5bn worth of drugs

Sons of drugs kingpin “El Chapo” are among members of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel charged in the United States with running a huge operation that supplies fentanyl to the US. The operation was allegedly fuelled by Chinese chemical companies. Fentanyl is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of mainly young Americans each year. Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the former Sinaloa cartel leader, is serving a life sentence in the US. His three sons charged – Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Sálazar – are known as the Chapitos, or little Chapos, and are believed to … Continue reading El Chapo sons among Sinaloa cartel members charged by US

The United Arab Emirates has released an Israeli woman a year after she was convicted on drug charges. Fidaa Kiwan flew home on Sunday. Israel called her pardon a “special gesture” to President Isaac Herzog, who had requested her release. Ms Kiwan was arrested on April 2021 for possessing cannabis and cocaine. Her initial death sentence was reduced to life in prison on appeal. Israel and the UAE normalised relations under a US-brokered deal in 2020. Ms Kiwan, an Arab-Israeli photographer, was visiting Dubai for work when she was arrested. According to prosecutors, she was found with 50g of cocaine … Continue reading UAE pardons Israeli woman who faced life in prison

Global cocaine production has reached record levels as demand rebounds following Covid-19 lockdowns, a new report has found. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation rose by 35% between 2021 and 2022 to record levels. Findings suggest new hubs for trafficking have emerged in West and Central Africa. The report also said traffickers were using international postal services more often to get drugs to consumers. Europe and North America are the largest markets for cocaine, followed by South and Central America and the Caribbean. While the report said the markets in Africa and Asia were “still limited”, … Continue reading Cocaine production reaches record levels as new trafficking hubs emerge

A Thai drug dealer underwent several facial plastic surgeries to look like “a handsome Korean man” and evade the law, local authorities have said. Saharat Sawangjaeng, who adopted the alias Jimin Cheong, was caught last week at a condominium in Bangkok. Police, who had been on the hunt for the 25-year-old for three months, said “none of his original face was left”. They tracked him down by tracing the distribution of ecstasy to other sellers and buyers in Bangkok. Witnesses described him as a “handsome Korean man” to police. He had also changed his name to a Korean one, and … Continue reading Thai drug dealer had plastic surgery to look like Korean man, police say

The former face of Mexico’s war on drugs has been convicted by a US jury of drug trafficking. Genaro García Luna, once Mexico’s security minister, was found guilty of taking millions of dollars from Mexico’s biggest crime group, the Sinaloa drug cartel. García Luna – who was arrested in the state of Texas in 2019 – had pleaded not guilty. The 54-year-old could face life in prison. At a minimum, García Luna will serve the mandatory minimum of 20 years, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. The verdict came after a four-week trial and three days of … Continue reading Mexico’s ex-security minister Genaro García Luna convicted of drug trafficking

A photographer from California who tried to smuggle cannabis worth £760,000 into the UK inside his luggage has been jailed. Zered Akolo, 26, hid 47 kilos of class B drugs in two suitcases when he flew into Heathrow airport from Los Angeles on January 16. Border Agents seized the herbal cannabis and questioned Akolo, who denied the bags belonged to him despite his name being on the luggage tags. At Isleworth crown court, Akolo pleaded guilty to importing class B drugs and he was sentenced on Thursday to two years and eight months in prison. “Akolo was foolish in the extreme to think he could get … Continue reading US photographer who smuggled 47kg of cannabis from the US to UK jailed