USA. Trail of Drug-Linked Planes Leads Back to California Seller – and U.S. Aviation Regulatory ‘Blind Spot’  OCCRP reviewed the sales of 30 planes by Lance Zane Ricotta’s companies since 2014, and found evidence that 11 of them were seized, i…

Why Are Some European Drug Gangs Burying Cocaine Instead of Selling It?  Wholesale prices are in the gutter across much of Europe, forcing drug smugglers to try to manipulate the market. OCCRP explains the factors affecting Europe's cocaine su…

Syrien. UN Says Assad’s Fall Disrupted Syria’s Captagon Production  Despite record seizures totaling more than 177 million tablets across the Arab region, Captagon continues to flow through new trafficking routes as smugglers adapt to intensif…

Syrien. Syria: Authorities Bust Captagon Production Ring, Seize 500k Pills Syrian authorities have seized nearly 500,000 captagon pills in a bust against a drug smuggling and manufacturing ring in the the city of Hama, according to state news agenc…

Pakistan/Afghanistan. Pakistan’s evergreen poppy economy is undergoing a silent surge As Afghanistan enforces a near-total poppy ban, Pakistan’s Balochistan emerges as the new centre of a resurgent opium economy. State complicity, militant financin…

Law enforcement challenges major cocaine supply chains into Europe Law enforcement authorities across Europe and South America continue to put sustained pressure on the criminal networks responsible for moving cocaine into Europe. Three recent acti…