Category: drug

Taliban Likely to Continue Afghanistan’s Lucrative Drug Trade: Experts

With the Taliban’s takeover of large swathes of Afghanistan, the group is poised to take control of the country’s billion-dollar opium and heroin trade. Afghanistan is the world’s largest illicit opiate supplier, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimating the country accounts for 80 percent of global opium and heroin supply….


China’s Alliance With Mexican Cartels Continues to Fuel Deadly Fentanyl Crisis in US: Former DEA Official

Distributing and trafficking fentanyl to the United States is the “perfect tool” in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaign of “unrestricted warfare” against the West, according to a former division head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “They are not dropping bombs or putting armies on the ground in America, but they’re still killing Americans…


New York, Drug Distributors Reach $1.18 Billion Opioid Settlement as National Deal Looms

NEW YORK—The three largest U.S. drug distributors agreed mid-trial to pay up to $1.18 billion to settle claims by New York state and two of its biggest counties over their role in the nationwide opioid epidemic, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday. McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp settled as state attorneys…


Britain Fines Drug Firms After Steroid Price for NHS Rises Over 10,000 Percent

Britain’s competition regulator has fined more than 10 drug firms a record combined £260 million ($360 million) for overcharging the National Health Service (NHS) for a steroid that rose from 70 pence to £88 a pack in under eight years. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Thursday that the breaches meant the NHS…


FDA Head Calls for Probe Into Alzheimer’s Drug Review

WASHINGTON—The acting head of the Food and Drug Administration on Friday called for a government investigation into highly unusual contacts between her agency’s drug reviewers and the maker of a controversial new Alzheimer’s drug. Dr. Janet Woodcock announced the extraordinary step via Twitter. It’s the latest fallout over last month’s approval of Aduhelm, an expensive…


Australian Gangster Bilal Hamze Shot Dead in ‘Hail of Bullets’ in Sydney

Australian crime boss Bilal Hamze was gunned down “in a hail of bullets” in the heart of Sydney’s central business district in what police say was a “brutal, execution style murder”. Multiple gunmen opened fire on the 34-year-old on Thursday night on Bridge street, near Circular Quay and fled the scene in a black car….


Honduran President’s Brother Sentenced to Life in Prison in US for Drug Trafficking

NEW YORK—Tony Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman and brother of the sitting president, was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for drug trafficking by a U.S. judge on Tuesday. Hernandez, 42, was convicted on the drug charges and related weapons charges in October 2019. Hernandez will also be forced to pay $138.5 million…


‘If I Can Do It, Anyone Can’: Former Inmate Graduates With Honors From Cal State Long Beach

A Long Beach man who spent more than three decades in prison recently graduated from Cal State Long Beach this month, with honors. He is now awaiting acceptance into a master’s program in social work at the same university. Joseph Valadez spent half his adult life in prison, but he’s not letting that stop him…


Death Row Records Founder and Former Drug Kingpin Thanks Trump for Pardon

An American hip-hop label co-founder and ex-drug kingpin thanked former President Donald Trump for granting him clemency last week after being imprisoned for 30 years. Michael “Harry O” Harris made the comment during his first interview since Trump commuted the Death Row Records co-founder’s 25 years to life sentence after being convicted in 1988 for…