\n
Forwarded by Maggie Petito, DWI – 03 December 2025<\/span><\/p>\n A variety of news reports* are out concurrently regarding the massive drugs transit schemes to move cocaine, etc. on horrifyingly diseased cattle, etc. illegally flagged tankers. Other tankers ferried sheep and cocaine via the al Kuwait relying on Croatian rackets.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 * Drug cartels are using ships packed with disease-ridden cattle to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine to Europe.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Police do not seize the vessels because it is a \u201clogistical nightmare\u201d to deal with the thousands of cows, intelligence sources have told The Telegraph.<\/span><\/p>\n The festering and foul-smelling conditions on board, with many of the animals dead or having spent months wallowing in faeces, put officers off searching the ships.<\/span><\/p>\n In the gang-controlled ports of Santos and Belem in\u00a0Brazil, and in Colombia\u2019s Cartagena, up to 10,000 cows at a time are loaded on to the decrepit 200m long ships, according to sources at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre, Narcotics (MAOC-N).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Every single part of these reports indicates criminal \u2013 racketeering- actions where no justice prevails. Source ports in Colombia and Brazil pack for the uninspected ocean carriers. Near-failed state Lebanon and Egypt, previously linked with Latin America\u2019s Hezbollah cartels, receive the tankers of diseased cattle. No reports on the health of the tanker crew.<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover: \u201cThe 50-year-old carriers set sail around the Caribbean or South America to collect cocaine packages from smaller ships, typically picking up\u00a0<\/strong>four to 10 tons, worth up to around \u00a3450m. The crew conceal the packages in the ship\u2019s giant grain silos and other hiding places, the sources said. The vessels will fly flags of convenience \u2013 where the ship is registered in a country different to its ownership, often in those with less stringent maritime regulations, such as Panama and Tanzania.<\/span><\/p>\n The vessels are officially bound for the ports of Beirut in Lebanon or Damietta in Egypt, where sanitation regulations for livestock are less stringent than in Europe. However, the ship\u2019s most lucrative cargo is destined for the major seaports of Antwerp or Rotterdam, Europe\u2019s gateways for cocaine. At some point across the Atlantic, the crew tie the packages of cocaine to inflatables, attach GPS devices, and jettison them overboard where they are then picked up by \u201cgo-fast boats\u201d and smuggled to Belgium and the\u00a0Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n The method is so effective that in the past 18 years, European police have seized only one livestock vessel carrying cocaine. At least one suspicious livestock ship departs every week from South America towards Europe, The Telegraph understands.<\/span><\/p>\n The law enforcement group is made up of 10 member countries, including the UK, and works closely with the\u00a0National Crime Agency, Britain\u2019s equivalent of the FBI.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One must ask: If 10,000 diseased cattle are shipped to Africa or Europe or the Middle East weekly, in three months this is over 100,000 diseased cows entering such zones. What becomes of these animals?<\/span><\/p>\n Hats off to Australia: \u201cMeanwhile, last week Australian police disclosed that a livestock ship carrying sheep had been used to try to smuggle \u00a384m of cocaine into the country.<\/span><\/p>\n Fishermen found the cocaine tied to a floating drum off the western coast of Lancelin, about 75 miles north of Perth, on Nov 6.<\/span><\/p>\n The Western Australia Joint Organised Crime Taskforce alleged the drugs were dropped into the ocean from a livestock carrier, the Al Kuwait, on its way to Fremantle Harbour.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So-called shadow fleets and rickety tankers moving god-knows-what, under fake flags and no transponders, are the tools of criminal rackets.<\/span><\/p>\n Recently Spain suffered an outbreak of swine flu derived from Spain\u2019s large holiday ham sales. Fearing swine flu transmittal, unsafe ham is being banned.<\/span><\/p>\n Unsafe, filthy practices permit the spread of the food of addictions and attendant deadly diseases.<\/span><\/p>\n It has been penny wise, so some think, yet pound foolish to curtail USDA staff.<\/span><\/p>\n <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><\/span><\/p>\n Cocaine cows: How cartels use livestock to smuggle drugs to Europe<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Gangs pack narcotics into carriers with dead and dying cattle to deter police from searching on board<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Telegraph\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Max Stephens International Crime Correspondent\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 02 December 2025<\/span><\/p>\n Drug cartels are using ships packed with disease-ridden cattle to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine to\u00a0Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n Police do not seize the vessels because it is a \u201clogistical nightmare\u201d to deal with the thousands of cows, intelligence sources have told The Telegraph.<\/span><\/p>\n The festering and foul-smelling conditions on board, with many of the animals dead or having spent months wallowing in faeces, put officers off searching the ships.<\/span><\/p>\n In the gang-controlled ports of Santos and Belem in\u00a0Brazil, and in Colombia\u2019s Cartagena, up to 10,000 cows at a time are loaded on to the decrepit 200m long ships, according to sources at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre, Narcotics (MAOC-N).<\/span><\/p>\n MAOC-N is an EU law enforcement group based in Lisbon that combats\u00a0drug-trafficking\u00a0by sea.<\/span><\/p>\n The Orion V was intercepted in the Canary Islands carrying 4,500 kilos of cocaine in Jan 2023\u00a0Credit: Policia Nacional<\/span><\/p>\n The 50-year-old carriers set sail around the Caribbean or South America to collect cocaine packages from smaller ships, typically picking up\u00a0<\/strong>four to 10 tons, worth up to around \u00a3450m. The crew conceal the packages in the ship\u2019s giant grain silos and other hiding places, the sources said.<\/span><\/p>\n The vessels will fly flags of convenience \u2013 where the ship is registered in a country different to its ownership, often in those with less stringent maritime regulations, such as Panama and Tanzania.<\/span><\/p>\n The vessels are officially bound for the ports of Beirut in Lebanon or Damietta in Egypt, where sanitation regulations for livestock are less stringent than in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the ship\u2019s most lucrative cargo is destined for the major seaports of Antwerp or Rotterdam, Europe\u2019s gateways for cocaine.<\/span><\/p>\n At some point across the Atlantic, the crew tie the packages of cocaine to inflatables, attach GPS devices, and jettison them overboard where they are then picked up by \u201cgo-fast boats\u201d and smuggled to Belgium and the\u00a0Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n The method is so effective that in the past 18 years, European police have seized only one livestock vessel carrying cocaine. At least one suspicious livestock ship departs every week from South America towards Europe, The Telegraph understands.<\/span><\/p>\n The law enforcement group is made up of 10 member countries, including the UK, and works closely with the\u00a0National Crime Agency, Britain\u2019s equivalent of the FBI.<\/span><\/p>\n An intelligence analyst for the MAOC-N told The Telegraph: \u201cYou would not want to spend more than one minute on one of these vessels, you can only imagine the smell. The authorities don\u2019t want to have these vessels at their ports.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLogistically, the countries don\u2019t like to do inspections on board these vessels. The bad guys, they know this and that\u2019s why they are using it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When police and customs officers reached the Orion V they faced the terrible stench of dead and dying cows\u00a0Credit: Policia Nacional<\/span><\/p>\n Sniffer dogs are near useless at detecting drugs because they are so put off by the cows and their stench, they added.<\/span><\/p>\n The source described the scale of the problem as a \u201cblack hole\u201d. Without intelligence detailing exactly where the drugs were onboard, it was almost impossible to meet the threshold for convincing national police authorities to do a seizure.<\/span><\/p>\n They said: \u201cYou can imagine the cost of such an operation, to get to a port, take all the cattle out, get all the authorities in to do an inspection on a vessel that is very big, a lot of concealment [for drugs]. They [the gangs] are very professional and they know exactly what they can take advantage of.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On January 24 2023,\u00a0Spanish\u00a0police made the first ever seizure of a cattle ship trafficking cocaine in European waters. Armed police intercepted the 100m long Orion V 62 nautical miles south-west of the Canary Islands during its voyage from Colombia to Lebanon.<\/span><\/p>\n Officers discovered 4,500kg of cocaine, with a value of around \u00a382m, hidden in packages in cattle food silos. Footage from body-worn police cameras showed officers wading through dung and urine from the 1,750 cows on board.<\/span><\/p>\n Packages of drugs, alleged by Australian police to have been carried on a ship full of sheep\u00a0Credit: Western Australia Police<\/span><\/p>\n The vessel, flying a Togolese flag, was towed to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and its 28 crew members, of nine different nationalities, were arrested. Locals in the port city reportedly complained of the rotting smell emanating from the vessel.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, last week Australian police disclosed that a livestock ship carrying sheep had been used to try to smuggle \u00a384m of cocaine into the country.<\/span><\/p>\n Fishermen found the cocaine tied to a floating drum off the western coast of Lancelin, about 75 miles north of Perth, on Nov 6.<\/span><\/p>\n The Western Australia Joint Organised Crime Taskforce alleged the drugs were dropped into the ocean from a livestock carrier, the Al Kuwait, on its way to Fremantle Harbour.<\/span><\/p>\n Police said the drugs were dropped into the ocean from a livestock carrier\u00a0Credit: Western Australia Police<\/span><\/p>\n The day after the drugs were found, police charged the vessel\u2019s chief officer, a 46-year-old Croatian national, with attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine. Investigators searched his ship and found a blue drum and ropes similar to those allegedly found with the drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n Two men from Sydney, aged 19 and 36, and a 52-year-old Perth man were all allegedly part of the shore party, and responsible for collecting the cocaine and bringing it to shore.<\/span><\/p>\n <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><\/span><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Pardon for Cocaine Juan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A jury found Honduras\u2019s former President guilty. Why set him free?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Wall Street Journal\u00a0\u00a0 The Editorial Board\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dec. 2, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n President Trump, like other politicians, sometimes does something unpopular to please his base. But what is the audience for Mr. Trump\u2019s pardon of former Honduran President\u00a0Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez?<\/span><\/p>\n He was sentenced in 2024 to 45 years in prison, after a federal jury in New York found him guilty of participating in a conspiracy to traffic 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe jury heard the testimony of Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, and saw right through his polished demeanor,\u201d Judge P.\u00a0Kevin Castel\u00a0told the court during last year\u2019s sentencing. \u201cThey saw him for what he was, a two-faced politician, hungry for power, who presented himself as a champion against gangs, murder, crime, and drug trafficking, but secretly protected a select group of drug traffickers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Those 400 tons of cocaine, trans-shipped via Honduras, were worth $10 billion in the U.S. \u201cIn 2013, El Chapo Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, paid a $1 million bribe to Hern\u00e1ndez and his campaign, delivered directly to Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s brother,\u201d the judge said. While the former Honduran leader wasn\u2019t accused of a direct role in the conspiracy\u2019s killings, \u201che knew and understood the violence that accompanies drug trafficking, and in facilitating trafficking, he knowingly facilitated the violence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s the voice of the federal judge who presided over the trial, saw the evidence, and supervised the jury. So why did Mr. Trump decide to set Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez free?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, they said it was a Biden set up,\u201d Mr. Trump told a reporter Sunday on Air Force One. \u201cThey basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the President of the country. And they said it was a Biden Administration set up, and I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Would Mr. Trump care to elaborate for a perplexed public, including Republicans on Capitol Hill? The Trump Administration is saying that illegal drugs are a threat serious enough to justify U.S. military strikes on alleged trafficking boats in the Caribbean, and it\u2019s also trying to push out Venezuelan dictator\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. \u201cWhy would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States?\u201d Sen.\u00a0Bill Cassidy\u00a0wrote on social media. \u201cLock up every drug runner! Don\u2019t understand why he is being pardoned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez pleaded for clemency in a sycophantic letter to Mr. Trump that is dated Oct. 28. \u201cI have found strength from you, Sir, your resilience to get back in that great office notwithstanding the persecution and prosecution you faced, all for what, because you wished to make your country Great Again,\u201d the Honduran wrote. \u201cLike you, I was recklessly attacked by radical leftist forces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The White House denied that Mr. Trump saw this fawning message before he announced the pardon late last week, but the letter was reportedly passed along to him by\u00a0Roger Stone, the Beltway gadfly whom Mr. Trump pardoned in the first term after a conviction for lying to Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n Meantime, the results of Sunday\u2019s presidential election in Honduras remain too close to call. Mr. Stone had argued on his blog that a \u201cwell-timed pardon\u201d for Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez could help to prod the election in a direction favorable to American interests.<\/span><\/p>\n What a strange turn of events. Perhaps Mr. Trump thinks he\u2019s playing geopolitical chess, but he has a long record of high susceptibility to flattery, and his pardon without explanation undermines the rule of law and the prosecutors who put Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez away. Which convicted criminals will be the next to discover that praising\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s magnificence is a get-out-of-jail-free card?<\/span><\/p>\n \nSource: www.drugwatch.org<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Forwarded by Maggie Petito, DWI – 03 December 2025 A variety of news reports* are out concurrently regarding the massive drugs transit schemes to move cocaine, etc. on horrifyingly diseased cattle, etc. illegally flagged tankers. Other tankers ferried sheep and cocaine via the al Kuwait relying on Croatian rackets. \u00a0 * Drug cartels are using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,31,32,68,40,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-countries","category-cocaine","category-crime-violence-prison","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-prevention-research","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20495,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20493\/revisions\/20495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}