Global Ganja Report

Last month, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla AKA "El Mayito"—the son of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael Zambada AKA "El Mayo"—filed pleadings in a Chicago federal court accusing the US Justice Department of giving the cartel "carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States." Zambada's pleadings claim that protection included promises to be kept apprised of US and Mexican government investigations close to the "home territories" of cartel leaders so they "could take appropriate actions to evade investigators"—even as the US had indictments, extradition requests, and rewards for the apprehension of the top Sinaloa Cartel leadership.

The US Coast Guard announced the interception of a so-called “narco submarine," while in a joint patrol of Caribbean waters with the Honduran armed forces. On July 13, the crew of the Coast cutter Seneca, interdicted the craft, called a self-propelled semi-submersible or SPSS, off the coast of Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. The Coast Guard says the vessel sank during the interdiction, but that nearly 7.5 tons of cocaine was later recovered. Four crew members—three Colombians and a Honduran—were detained and brought by the Coast Guard to Miami to face federal charges. (La Tribuna, El Heraldo, Tegucigalpa, Aug. 2; CBS Miami, Aug. 1; Notimex, July 30)

Speaking before a conference of campesina women in Cochabamba July 25, Bolivia's President Evo Morales said he fears a US plot to frame him for drug offense: "Do you know what? I think they have to be preparing something. So much that I'm afraid to go with our airplane to the United States. Surely when we arrive, they can plant something and detain the presidential plane."

The government of Bolivia formally notified the UN Secretary General of its withdrawal from the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs on June 30. The withdrawal will enter into effect on Jan. 1, 2012. At that time, Bolivia will re-accede to the Convention with a reservation on the coca leaf and its traditional uses. Bolivia's step—the first of its kind in the history of the UN drug control treaties—comes after the rejection earlier this year of its proposal to delete the Single Convention's Article 49 obligation that "coca leaf chewing must be abolished." A number of countries, including the United States, objected.

A "peace caravan" which has spent a week travelling through Mexico to protest against drug-related violence and the "war on drugs," crossed the border into the US at Juárez-El Paso on June 11. Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who led the National Citizen Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, appealed for a similar citizen mobilization in the United States.

A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy finds that the "global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," and calls upon governments to explore the legalization of cannabis and other controlled substances. "Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately, that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem and that the war on drugs has not and cannot be won," the report states.

A combined unit of the Guatemalan army and national police arrested a presumed leader of the Zetas narco-paramilitary network May 18, who authorities believe to be commander of the assassination squad that carried out this week's grisly massacre of 27 farmworkers at a ranch in the northern jungle department of Petén. The detained man is named as Hugo Álvaro Gómez Vásquez, who also goes by "Comandante Bruja" or simply "La Bruja" (The Witch).

The Supreme Court heard arguments Feb. 28 in DePierre v. United States, on whether the term "cocaine base" in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines is limited to "crack" or includes all forms of cocaine chemically classified as a base. The US First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that "cocaine base" refers to "all forms of cocaine base, including, but not limited to crack cocaine." Counsel for the petitioner argue that Congress did not intend "cocaine base" to refer to substances used in the crack-production process.