Criminology and Psychology

Florida Department of Corrections Griselda Blanco in 2004. The convicted Colombian drug smuggler known as the “Godmother of Cocaine,” Griselda Blanco, 69, was gunned down by a motorcycle-riding assassin in Medellin, Colombian national police confirmed late Monday, according to the Miami Herald. Blanco spent nearly 20 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking and three murders before being deported to Colombia in 2004, the Herald reported. Two armed riders pulled up to Blanco as she was leaving a butcher shop in her hometown, and one shot her twice in the head, the Herald reported, citing a report in El Colombiano newspaper. Family members said Blanco had cut her ties to organized crime after returning to her country, the BBC reported. Police said they were investigating the motive. Blanco was one of the first to engage in large-scale smuggling of cocaine into the United States from Colombia and set up many of the routes used by the Medellin cartel a...

Four crewmen from a semisubmarine captured in June pleaded guilty today to federal drug charges.The crewmen were aboard the third semisub interdicted this year. The 50- to 60-foot vessel was spotted June 16 by a Marine patrol unit in the eastern Pacific northwest of the Ecuador-Colombia border.By the time the Coast Guard arrived, the sub's crew members were in the water and the vessel was sinking, a federal prosecutor has said. Crew members later told investigators they were instructed to scuttle the vessel after they spotted an airplane circling overhead. Guardsmen managed to get some bales of cocaine out of the sub before it slipped into the sea.Crew members told agents the vessel had 6 to 8 tons of cocaine onboard that was to be delivered to a Mexican fishing vessel 700 miles off the coast of Colombia, according to plea agreements signed by the four defendants.One of the crew members told agents he was paid 40 million pesos, or about $23,500; another said he was paid 30 million ...

Navy P-3 Orions working with Coast Guard teams have spotted two of the self-propelled, semi-submersible (SPSS) craft trying to make their way from Colombia up to the west coast of the U.S. in the Pacific ocean. Intelligence helped them know where to look.Rear Adm. Ted N. Branch says the Navy P-3 Orions used in the interdictions have radar and forward looking infrared sensors that can detect these low profile SPSS craft on the ocean.These types of smuggling vessels are fabricated in the jungles of Colombia and designers have moved on from earlier wood and fiberglass models to steel and fiberglass. Their low topside profile creates a small radar cross section, so maritime patrol aircraft have the best detection track record so far, according to the Coast Guard.On Sept. 13, a Navy P-3 Orion directed a U.S. Navy warship to one SPSS so a Coast Guard team could board the vessel. The boarding party surprised the four Colombians aboard, who then opened valves to scuttle the vessel. The Coast G...

Police Friday announced the arrest of nine people in the northern Basque Country region suspected of laundering more than 32 million euros by sending large sums to Latin America.A probe revealed “several irregularities in payments made overseas from five offices, two of them in Irun and three in San Sebastian,” a police statement said.“Since 2006, those arrested could have sent more than 32 million euros (45 million dollars) gained from illegal activities,” it said, adding that the transfers were made to Colombia, Nicaragua and Honduras.The statement did not specify the nature of the illegal activities.Spain is Europe’s main point of transit for cocaine from South America, mostly from its former colony Colombia, the world’s top producer of the drug.The country has become the biggest consumer of cocaine in continental Europe, and is one of the world’s top users of the drug, according to a report published in January by the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

Ramiro Vanoy Murillo, 60, and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo, 38, are among 14 paramilitary members extradited to the U.S. in May for their alleged roles in a massive cocaine smuggling operation in the late 1990s. The two entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in downtown Miami.Under a plea agreement, Vanoy Murillo faces up to 19 years and Zuluaga Lindo more than 17 years behind bars. Prosecutors said they would drop additional charges against the two at sentencing. Each could also face up to $4 million in fines.The Bush administration agreed it would not seek life sentences as a precondition of their extradition. But on Tuesday, Moore reminded the defendants that he was not bound by the plea agreement in deciding sentencing.A lean, bespectacled Vanoy Murillo, sporting a shaved head, and a husky Zuluaga Lindo attended the hearings quietly. Both wore standard beige jumpsuits, their feet in shackles and spoke only in response to the judge's questions.At one p...