Criminology and Psychology

Police in Peru say they have seized 3 tons of cocaine mixed into a shipment of guano bound for Spain.A four-month investigation led to the seizure at a warehouse in the capital of Lima, anti-drug police Col. Cesar Cortijo said Monday.Cortijo said the drugs belonged to a trafficking ring that smuggled cocaine out of the country mixed with other products. Four Peruvians and a Colombian were arrested.Police delayed announcing the Dec. 4 raid because it was initially impossible to calculate how much cocaine was mixed with the guano, the nitrogen- and phosphate-rich droppings of birds and bats.Cortijo said the cocaine was destined for Barcelona, Spain.Peru is the world's largest producer of coca and cocaine after Colombia, and it is also a major source of guano, harvested from excrement-stained islands off its southern coast. Most is used as fertilizer in Peru's fields, but some is shipped overseas, where it is a favorite among organic gardeners.

Punitha K K Samy, 50, who was last heard of in August 2006, is apparently yet another case of women travelling alone being used as drug carriers by international syndicates that operate in several countries including India, say Malaysian authorities.Her case could boost the government's controversial plan to make a law that would require a woman taking a flight alone to get permission from her family members.The Peruvian prison authorities have contacted Kalai Kumar, a friend and former employer in Ampang here, to inform that she was very ill. ''Punitha gave the prison authorities my contact number. They told me she is suffering from stomach cancer and tuberculosis,'' Kumar told the New Straits Times on Sunday. ''The caller told me they could not contact Punitha's family and that she gave them my name,'' Kumar, who also goes by the spiritual name of Tarapith Yantra Yogi and is the founder of the Tantra Yoga Hindu Organisation, said. He said Punit...

Police seized 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of cocaine and arrested four alleged members of an international drug-trafficking gang, Peruvian officials said Sunday. In two coordinated raids, police confiscated 1.5 metric tons (1.7 tons) of cocaine from a house in a Lima suburb and the rest from a building in the neighboring port of Callao late Saturday, said Col. Demetrio Perez Vargas, chief of information for Peru's national police. A Venezuelan and three Peruvians were arrested, police said in a statement. The cocaine, found hidden in king-size mattresses, was apparently destined for Europe. Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro told reporters the drugs came from the coca-producing Apurimac River Valley southeast of Lima, where last week Shining Path rebels working with drug traffickers killed a police officer and wounded 11 others in an ambush.Peruvian authorities have confiscated nearly 10 metric tons (11 tons) of drugs in the first three months of 2008, according to the national police...

traffickers are always seeking new ways to move their prized product.Many departing Peru on commercial flights are young Western tourists heading back to Europe, where cocaine brings a premium. An underground network recruits them -- in European cafes, on college campuses, in clubs and even in coded newspaper adds."They might approach you in a bar at night, or at the university," said Elena Santos, 24, of Madrid, among the large contingent of jailed Spanish burriers. "They say it's easy, you can make good money."The pledged remuneration may vary, but 5,000 euros (about $7,885) per kilo of cocaine is typical.Traffickers help burriers conceal drugs stashed in checked luggage, taped to torsos, inserted into body cavities, swallowed in latex balls -- a potentially fatal technique, should a capsule rupture. Most burriers are Latin American. But a significant number are Europeans and some Americans, all supposedly inconspicuous because of their looks and passports.But...