Global Ganja Report

Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the violence in Kingston this week, saying that Jamaican police had a "dire" human rights track record. With the official death toll at 73—including three members of the security forces—the manhunt for Christopher "Dudus" Coke has been suspended. Many Jamaicans believe the government wants Dudus "dead or alive." Authorities, however, insist he will be arrested and brought to justice. (BBC News, May 29)

The New York Times in a front-page story May 26 said that President Barack Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on enforcement there to combat drug smuggling. The decision was disclosed after Obama met the previous day with Republican senators.

Colombian beauty queen Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 31, was arrested in Argentina May 26 on charges of leading a drug trafficking ring. Argentine police had been looking for her for more than five months before they tracked her down in a youth hostel in Buenos Aires. She is accused of persuading young women to smuggle cocaine from Argentina to Europe via Mexico. She denies the charges.

Gun battles raging in the Jamaican capital have left more than 60 people dead, hospital sources said May 25, as troops fanned out across the city hunting for accused drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke. Police put the death toll at 27, but Prime Minister Bruce Golding admits the actual figure may be much higher.

Running battles between police and gunmen of the Shower Posse gang turned part of Jamaica's capital Kingston into a warzone on May 24, with reports of explosions and civilian casualties. Two police were killed the previous day as police moved in to arrest accused kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke for extradition to the US. The confirmed death toll has now reached three, as a soldier was killed breaking through street barricades in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood.

National Public Radio on May 18 adds to the widespread speculation that the Mexican government is tilting to the Sinaloa Cartel in the country's increasingly violent narco wars. Reporting from Ciudad Juárez, where President Felipe Calderón has deployed 10,000 army troops and federal police, NPR "finds strong evidence that Mexico's drug fight is rigged," citing court testimony, current and former law enforcement officials, and an analysis of cartel arrests.

The Jamaican government has agreed extradite to the US the accused leader of the notorious Shower Posse drug gang, Christopher "Dudus" Coke. Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s controversial decision reverses months of opposition to his extradition. Coke will be sent to New York to face drug and gun trafficking charges.

A "mysterious" fungus that has damaged opium poppy crops in Afghanistan is sparking fears of US biological warfare. Helmand farmers interviewed by BBC Pashto service were convinced that "they" had deliberately destroyed the crops—the pronoun "they" being a euphemism for US secret agents, believed by the farmers to have sprayed the crops with the fungus. The UN drug control office in Afghanistan is conducting an investigation into the outbreak.