Illegal drug trade

Austria's public broadcaster ORF, in a news report on Sunday, said the amount of hard drugs coming from the Balkans to Austria had dramatically increased recently, making effective control of the Austria-Slovenia border region of Carinthia hard to handle for law enforcement.

Turkish security forces have seized 53 tons of marijuana, 20 and a half tons of heroin and 114 million root cannabis as part of the drug operations conducted since the beginning of this year, the country's interior minister has said.

The excitement was understandable. Dairo Antonio Usuga, better known in Colombia as 'Otoniel', was the country's most wanted drug trafficker, a former guerrilla turned leader of El Clan del Golfo, the biggest criminal gang in Colombia. 

He was arrested in late October, 500 soldiers and 22 helicopters descending on his rural hideout in northwestern Colombia.

Under questioning, he admitted selling drugs for a dealer who paid him a fixed monthly wage of 10,000 leks, or roughly 82 euros. He refused to name the dealer.

The boy is one a growing number of minors used as distributors by organised drug gangs operating in densely-populated districts of Tirana, in exchange for a meagre wage.

The newspaper "Semana" states that Otoniel, in order to form a network for illegal trade, established connections in Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Belgium.

Anti-narcotics teams in the capital Ankara have unveiled cocaine traffic between a Colombian drug cartel, Cali, and seven Turkish drug barons in a nine-month surveillance, according to a report by the daily Hürriyet.

"Cali cartel sent the drugs in boxes of flowers, bananas, coffee or strawberries, using air and sea routes," the report said on Oct. 3.

Ecuador is trying to restore order in one of its largest prisons after a riot that killed at least 116 prisoners in the latest attack of violence, which authorities linked to groups fighting to control drug trafficking routes, Reuters reports.

Turkish security forces seized more than 714 kilograms (1,574 pounds) of heroin on July 23.

In one operation, police in İpekyolu district of eastern Van province captured more than 265 kilos (584 pounds) of heroin and arrested two suspects on allegations of drug trafficking, according to a statement by the provincial police department.

A total of 6.1 tons of drugs and 15.2 tons of materials used for drug production have been seized this year, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş has said.

He noted that earlier this month, customs officials first seized 1.3 tons of cocaine in a shipping container at the port in the southern province of Mersin.

Custom enforcement officers have seized 1 ton of cocaine at the Mersin Port in southern Turkey.

This is the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in the country, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş said on Twitter, congratulating the General Directorate of Customs Protection units for the "successful operation."