Global cocaine boom keeps setting new records, UN report says
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Hans India
a day ago
- Hans India
Seethakka commends Prajwala's unwavering commitment in fight against sex trafficking
Hyderabad: An event on 'World Day Against Trafficking In Persons' was organised by PRAJWALA-An anti-trafficking organization founded by Padma Shri awardee Sunitha Krishnan, with key stakeholders from governments, civil society, local community networks, and like-minded individuals on Wednesday. The event was organised at KNL Prasad Auditorium at Red Hills on Wednesday. According to UNODC estimates, a significant proportion of trafficking victims in India which is over 60 per cent were women and children, and many were exploited for commercial sex, forced labour, and domestic servitude. India continues to be a source, transit, and destination country, with traffickers increasingly using digital platforms for recruitment and exploitation. Women and Child Welfare Minister D Seethakka commended Prajwala's unwavering commitment in the fight against sex trafficking through its holistic interventions spanning prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration. The Minister emphasized the critical need for multi-stakeholder collaboration and reinforced that ending human trafficking requires a unified approach from government agencies, civil society, and the public at large. As part of the event, Seethakka felicitated eight Anti-Trafficking Champion from judiciary, police, survivors community and grass root level workers who have demonstrated exceptional courage and dedication in combating trafficking and supporting victims. She also formally released a set of comprehensive Training Manuals for Anganwadi workers, School Teachers and Village Office Assistants developed by Prajwala. These manuals are expected to play a crucial role in early identification, timely intervention, and victim support at the village and ward levels. As part of the event, a poster reflecting the 2025 theme 'Human Trafficking is Organized Crime – End the Exploitation' was unveiled to amplify public awareness. Two impactful short films 'The Game' and 'Like, Subscribe and Share', directed by eminent filmmaker Rajesh Touchriver were also released, powerfully portraying the growing menace of cyber-enabled human trafficking and the urgent need for digital vigilance.
Time of India
27-06-2025
- Time of India
Cartels smuggle a different type of cocaine to new overseas labs
Cartels are offshoring more cocaine production outside of Colombia and exporting lower-grade drugs that are easier to conceal in products such as paints and plastics. Increasingly, the groups are smuggling coca paste - cheap, unrefined cocaine - to labs as far away as Italy and the Netherlands to be processed into the final powder, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. "In terms of risk, if a shipment gets intercepted they're losing less," said Leonardo Correa, who heads the UNODC's monitoring and technical analysis in the Andes. "Coca paste is easier to mix with other products, which facilitates smuggling." Smuggling gangs have succeeded in mixing coca paste into products such as asphalt, vegetable oil and charcoal, according to the UN. Experts with some knowledge of chemistry then extract the product at the destination, Correa said. In Dec, Portuguese police dismantled a major cocaine laboratory. Such laboratories have also been found in Spain, Central America and elsewhere. Satellite images show the increase in supply is fuelled by a surge in production of coca, the raw material for the drug, in Colombia.
Indian Express
26-06-2025
- Indian Express
Myanmar burns confiscated drugs worth around $300 million
Officials in Myanmar's major cities destroyed about $300 million worth of confiscated illegal drugs Thursday. The destroyed drugs included opium, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, ketamine and the stimulant known as ice, or crystal meth, Yangon Police Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin said in a speech at a drug-burning ceremony. The drug burnings came nearly a month after UN experts warned of unprecedented levels of methamphetamine production and trafficking from Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, and Myanmar's eastern Shan State in particular. The production of opium and heroin historically flourished there, largely because of the lawlessness in border areas where Myanmar's central government has been able to exercise only minimum control over various ethnic minority militias, some of them partners in the drug trade. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a May report that the political crisis across the country after the military takeover in 2021 — which led to a civil war — has turbocharged growth of the methamphetamine trade. In the country's biggest city, Yangon, a massive pile of drugs worth more than $117 million went up in a blaze, Sein Lwin said. Similar events to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking also occurred in the country's second-largest city of Mandalay, and in Taunggyi, the capital of eastern Myanmar's Shan state, all areas close to where the drugs are produced. A police official from the capital Naypyitaw told The Associated Press that the substances burned in three locations were worth $297.95 million. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not yet been publicly announced. Myanmar has a long history of drug production linked to political and economic insecurity caused by decades of armed conflict. It has been a major source of illegal drugs destined for East and Southeast Asia, despite repeated efforts to crack down. That has led the flow of drugs to surge 'across not only East and Southeast Asia, but also increasingly into South Asia, in particular Northeast India,' the UN said last month. Drugs are increasingly trafficked from Myanmar to Cambodia, mostly through Laos, as well as through maritime routes linking Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with Sabah in Malaysia serving as a key transit hub, it added. The UN agency labeled Myanmar in 2023 as the world's largest opium producer.
