Psychoactive drugs

A total of 18 people have been arrested by police in central Athens in two separate crackdowns on crime in as many days in the areas of Omonia Square and Exarchia, the Hellenic Police (ELAS) announced on Monday.

Costa Rica police seized the largest amount of drug in its history yesterday - 5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a container of flowers that was to be loaded today in the port of Limon, on the Caribbean coast, France Press reported.

The drug was hidden in a shipment of flowers traveling to the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, the Interior Minister said.

Police on Friday evacuated a building on a central Athens street which, they said, had become a hangout for drug users and dealers.

Six people - five foreign nationals and a Greek woman - were arrested, while municipal cleaning crews removed 35 tons of garbage from the building on Liosion Street.

Greek law enforcement officials are planning to visit Serbia in the immediate future to discuss the murder of Montenegrins Igor Dedovic and Stevan Stamatovic, who were gunned down at a taverna in the seaside resort of Vari in Attica last Sunday.

Turkey seized over 10.15 kilograms (about 22 pounds) of heroin in the northwestern province of Bolu, a police source said on Jan. 21.

Anti-narcotics police, assisted by a sniffer dog, searched a suspicious car on a motorway in Bolu, recovering heroin from the trunk of the vehicle, said the source who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Police in Athens on Wednesday detained two men and a woman in connection with a crystal methamphetamine laboratory in the city center. 

According to a police statement, a raid on the makeshift lab turned up 3.5 kilograms of meth amphetamine (shisha) as well as various other substances whose chemical composition was unclear.

Turkish police on Dec. 24 seized kilograms (nearly 500 pounds) of marijuana from a truck in the country's southeast, according to a security source.

The drugs were seized in Gaziantep after anti-drug teams stopped the vehicle and arrested the driver in a sniffer dog-aided operation, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Police seized over 90 kilograms of heroin in eastern Turkey on Dec. 23, according to security sources.
The anti-drug police in the province of Van confiscated the illicit drug when they stopped a passenger bus in Tuşba district, the local police said in a statement.
During the search of bus, assisted by a sniffer dog, police found the drugs hidden in the trunk.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has noted  turn to the fight against smoking - the number of male smokers is decreasing for the first time worldwide and is on the turn, BTA reports.

So far, the WHO has noted a regular increase in male smokers since recording their numbers over the past 20 years.

The Interior Ministry monitors the internet to restrict the virtual sale of drugs, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said. Marinov took part in Friday's parliamentary scrutiny, where he explained to lawmakers how his department handles increased drug distribution online.