Jason Thompson, a guard at HMP Isis, was suspended as the Metropolitan Police investigated his involvement in smuggling drugs and contraband into the prison. He was sentenced to four years and six months for conspiracy and misconduct.
This was a fantastic seizure by our colleagues at Border Force, and taking this amount of cocaine out of circulation will have deprived the organised criminals involved of millions in profits.
Proposition 36, a state ballot measure, enacted harsher penalties for minor theft and drug offenses, with proponents pledging the crackdown would lead to mass treatment to keep people alive, out of jail, and off our streets. Case records, however, suggest the state is largely failing to meet the central goal of getting people help and instead conducting mass arrests and incarcerating more people with addiction.
The status quo is not an option. We have to ban it here in Boston. Kratom refers to both a tree native to southeast Asia and products derived from its leaves. There is particular concern among officials and experts about 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, a potent compound found in kratom. In recent years, products that contain synthetically enhanced amounts of 7-OH have proliferated in smoke shops and convenience stores around the country.
The US Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America, wrote in a social media post that the strike had taken place the previous day. Intelligence confirmed the low-profile vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.
The Donald Trump administration has insisted their actions are lawful and in compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict, with justification centred around "the United States' inherent right of self-defence as a matter of international law." The occupants targeted in the operation have been designated as "narco-terrorists" or members of "designated terrorist organizations," as a justification for blowing them out of the water-except, to date, no evidence or intelligence to back up those claims has been presented by the US to the public.
The ability of criminal groups to exercise this type of power and exercise this type of violence is closely linked to firearms trafficking, said Cecilia Farfan-Mendez, an expert on Mexican organised crime. If we want to see less violence in Mexico, this is a very important conversation.
More than 100 law enforcement agents conducted high-risk search warrants across three locations. The first was an active methamphetamine lab in the 8000 block of Center Drive in Valley Springs. A second site was located in the 2000 block of Golf Road in Turlock, which contained all the equipment necessary to operate as a lab but was shut down before production began. The third site, located in the 900 block of Reno Avenue in Modesto, was used by the drug trafficking organization to store and distribute illicit narcotics.
These semi-submersible boats have been used for years by drug gangs to smuggle cocaine from South and Central America. In more recent months as the price of cocaine has plummeted, gangs have changed tactics: instead of letting the boats sink on delivery, they have started to reuse the vessels, setting up a refuelling platform at sea and sending the boats back so they can make as many journeys as possible.
In separate operations across three statesSinaloa, Sonora, and Guerreroauthorities reported the seizure of more than 41,000 liters and 12 tons of chemicals to be used in drug production. The announcement includes the dismantling of a clandestine laboratory in Guerrero and 11 other methamphetamine production sites in Sonora. In Sonora, between the towns of Culiacan and Mexicali, a vehicle containing 212 kilograms of methamphetamine was seized by the Army and the National Guard.
The cartel said it was seizing the store, which would only be allowed to sell online outside the state. That was in early 2022, when vapes were still legal in Mexico, a market worth $1.5 billion. But earlier this month, the country banned the sale - although not the use - of electronic cigarettes. Experts believe organized crime will now consolidate its control over the sale of the devices.
The US military on Thursday said it killed two people in a strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal drugs in the eastern Pacific. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the US Southern Command posted on X. It added that "no US military forces were harmed" in the operation. The statement did not offer any evidence that the boat pictured was actually carrying narcotics before it was blown up in the attack.
Mexico has sent another 37 alleged members of Mexican criminal organisations to the United States, the country's security minister said, amid US President Donald Trump's threat of ground attacks against drug cartels in the region. The handover of alleged drug cartel members on Tuesday is the third major transfer to the US in the past year and brings the total number of suspects transferred to 92.
The drug is growing in popularity, sold online in custom baggies and is referenced regularly on social media by enthusiasts and musicians. Catch up quick: Authorities from Los Angeles to Miami in recent months have reported busts or issued strong warnings involving pink cocaine, also known as tuci or tusi. In 2025, New York investigators seized pink cocaine along with dozens of guns in a Tren de Aragua-linked trafficking case.
The Alaska Department of Corrections does not provide comprehensive access to this life saving medication. "I'm gonna give you a little pinch," Spencer said, sliding the needle into a fold of skin on the patient's belly for the subcutaneous injection. Alaska's not an outlier. Despite the fact that those recently released from incarceration are some of the most vulnerable to dying from drug overdose, addiction experts say that many jails and prisons around the country don't provide medication treatment.
From 2003 to 2022, annual overdose deaths in the United States rose from less than 26,000 to nearly 108,000-becoming the leading nonmedical cause of death, surpassing car accidents and gun violence combined. In Canada, overdose deaths increased almost tenfold in the same period. In both countries, the surge in deaths was supercharged by "synthetic" opioids such as fentanyl, the ultra-potent, lab-made narcotic that has come to dominate the supply of hard drugs.