Neurochemistry

Drivers competing in the Dakar Rally were greeted with wreaths made of coca leaves, which help combat altitude sickness and are also used as the raw ingredient in cocaine, as they entered the Andean country of Bolivia on Jan. 11.

Customs officers have seized 298 grams of cocaine in a cargo package sent from the Netherlands to the Aegean district of Edremit.

A 25-year-old man from Brazil has been arrested at Athens International Airport after an airport X-ray found more than 1kg of cocaine in his stomach wrapped in scores of small packets.

The man was stopped by officials on Sunday evening after landing on a flight from Rio de Janeiro via Zurich.

A prosecutor in the port city of Piraeus is to question on Wednesday two men arrested in nearby Drapetsona the previous day over the discovery of a large cache of heroin.

The suspects, both Albanian nationals aged 37 and 48 respectively, were nabbed after police received a tip-off that they were part of a large drug-smuggling ring that operated in the broader Attica area.

In a special action, the The General Directorate Combating Organized Crime and the police from Veliko Tarnovo broke up a drug lab for the production of amphetamines in Tarnovo, the Ministry of Interior announced.

Opiate production in Afghanistan has risen by 90% and reached a record 9,000 tonnes in 2017, according to the UN. Executive Director of the United Nations Drugs and Crime Unit, Yuri Fedotov, announced these figures at a session of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan.

Istanbul police detained a Nigerian national who was carrying over five kilograms of cocaine at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport, according to a police statement on Dec. 8.

After one of the judges from the Trial Chamber in the marathon case against alleged drugs baron Darko Saric was reassigned - meaning that the trial will have to start again - a Serbian journalist who has been following the case voiced suspicions of possible obstruction.

A 19-year-old Greek model was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport on Monday after cocaine with an estimated street value of HK$2.4 million was found in her rucksack.
The woman was the fourth female visitor arrested by airport customs officers for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the city in a week, according to Hong Kong Customs.

EU officials in Kabul, whose nationality is not specified, are accused of selling alcohol to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan where it is forbidden, the EU said on Sunday, quoted by the France.