Cocaine worth $1bn seized in The Gambia

At least two tonnes of cocaine with a street value of some $1bn has been seized in The Gambia, bound for Europe. In addition to the huge haul of drugs, the Gambian authorities have arrested a dozen suspected traffickers, and seized large quantities of cash and arms. Gambian investigators made the first arrests then called in British agents to gather forensic evidence. West Africa has become a major transit hub for trafficking Latin American drugs to markets in Europe. Drugs cartels are taking advantage of the region's poverty and weak security and judicial systems. Agents from the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency - the rough equivalent of the US FBI - helped discover the haul of highly concentrated cocaine behind a false wall in a warehouse basement an hour's drive from the Gambian capital, Banjul.

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Drug gang hangs two from bridge near Mexico City

The two men were found stripped to the waist and hung by the neck from the bridge near a shopping mall early Friday morning in Cuernavaca, said the attorney general's office for Morelos state, which includes the city. Suspected drug hitmen hung the bodies of two men off a major bridge on Friday in a weekend get-away near Mexico City in the latest brazen act of drug violence near the capital. Mexican media reported the hitmen riddled the bodies with bullets before fleeing the scene.

Drug violence is raging across Mexico and almost 20,000 people have died in the fight among cartels and with Mexican security forces since President Felipe Calderon (pictured above) launched his army-led crackdown on drug gangs in late 2006. "Given the characteristics of this act, the killings appear to be linked to drug cartels and it is something we are seeing more of in the area," said a spokesman for the attorney general's office who declined to be named.

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Drug cartels tighten grip; Mexico becoming 'narco-state'

For months, the leaders of Tancitaro had held firm against the drug lords battling for control of this central Mexican town. Then one morning, after months of threats and violence from the traffickers, they finally surrendered.Before dawn, gunmen kidnapped the elderly fathers of the town administrator and the secretary of the City Council. Within hours, both officials resigned along with the mayor, the entire seven-member City Council, two department heads, the police chief and all 60 police officers. Tancitaro had fallen to the enemy.

Across Mexico, the continuing ability of traffickers to topple governments like Tancitaro's, intimidate police and keep drug shipments flowing is raising doubts about the Mexican government's 3-year-old, U.S.-backed war on the drug cartels.Far from eliminating the gangs, the battle has exposed criminal networks more ingrained than most Americans could imagine: Hidden economies that employ up to one-fifth of the people in some Mexican states. Business empires that include holdings as everyday as gyms and a day-care center. And the death toll continues to mount: Mexico saw 6,587 drug-related murders in 2009, up from 5,207 in 2008 and 2,275 in 2007, according to an unofficial tally by the respected newspaper Reforma. Cartels have multiplied, improved their armament and are perfecting simultaneous, terrorist-style attacks.

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