Cocaine

Multi-agency crackdown “Operation Slim Chance” leads to indictment of 24

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 8, 2008) - New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the indictment of 24 New Yorkers accused of taking part in a highly organized narcotics distribution organization operating in the Capitol District and supplied from Long Island.

In the indictment unsealed in Schenectady County Court yesterday, a Grand Jury charged 24 people with possession and/or sale of narcotics and conspiracy to sell narcotics. The majority of arrests stemming from the Indictment occurred this morning throughout the Capitol Region. The indictment is the result of a multi-agency investigation known as “Operation Slim Chance,” led by the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF).    » read more »

Attorney General Says ‘Blow' Energy Drink Glorifying Drug Culture

May 2, 2008 -- Chicago – Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is demanding that a Las Vegas company discontinue its cocaine-themed marketing and sale of an energy drink mix that glorifies drug culture and has raised serious health concerns due to its high caffeine content.

Blow drink mix: Photo courtesy Illinois Attorney General's office

In a letter sent earlier this week to the President of Kingpin Concepts, Inc., Attorney General Madigan demanded that the company immediately cease all marketing and sales of the energy drink called Blow in the state of Illinois.    » read more »

Flooding brain with "pleasure chemical" receptors works on cocaine, as on alcohol

April 16, 2008 -- UPTON, NY - Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that increasing the brain level of receptors for dopamine, a pleasure-related chemical, can reduce use of cocaine by 75 percent in rats trained to self-administer it.

Peter Thanos: Photo courtesy Brookhaven Labs    » read more »

March 19, 2008 -- HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Attorney General narcotics agents today arrested three men involved in a $1.6 million cocaine distributing operation in Harrisburg. One of the accused is a Pennsylvania Department of Revenue employee.

Attorney General Tom Corbett said that this investigation, known as "Operation High Stakes," put an end to John Hollins' alleged distribution scheme, which had been operating since 1987.

Pennsylvania Attorney General announces Operation High Stakes: 3 arrested in $1.6 million cocaine distributing operation bust in Harrisburg.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 12, 2008 – "The crack-powder disparity is simply wrong and the time to fix it is now," stated James E. Felman in his remarks on behalf of the American Bar Association before the Senate Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Subcommittee, earlier today. The ABA is part of a broad consensus that finds disparity in sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses "unjustifiable and plainly unjust."    » read more »

United States Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

February 12, 2008 -- (As Entered into the Record)    » read more »

Biden Legislation to Completely Eliminate the Unjust 100-to-1 Crack/Powder Sentencing Structure and Replace with 1-to-1 System

February 12, 2008 -- Washington, DC – At a hearing addressing the federal cocaine sentencing laws today, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) called for an end to the current crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity. Currently, it takes 100 times more powder cocaine than crack to trigger the five- and ten-year mandatory minimum sentences under federal law.    » read more »

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - The crew of the 210-foot Coast Guard Cutter Diligence, homeported in Wilmington, N.C., helped interdict two suspected drug smugglers and seized 4,400 pounds of cocaine off the Nicaragua coast Jan. 23.

The Diligence crew launched a boat crew from the cutter and began pursuing the go-fast transiting west toward Nicaragua. A maritime law enforcement team with the 270-foot Coast Guard Cutter Tampa, homeported in Portsmouth, Va., also chased the vessel.    » read more »

Additional Clinical Trial Sites To Be Added -- Fast Track Status With FDA

CORAL GABLES, FL - January 25, 2008 -- Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPRX), a biopharmaceutical company that acquires, in-licenses, develops and commercializes prescription drugs for the treatment of drug addiction, today announced that it has initiated enrollment of patients for its 180- patient, U.S. Phase II clinical trial evaluating the use of CPP-109 in treating patients with cocaine addiction.    » read more »

December 19, 2007 -- TALLAHASSEE, FL - Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a Lee County woman pled guilty to trafficking cocaine and was sentenced to just over 124 months in prison. Donna Sierra Williams was prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution for trafficking more than $20,000 of cocaine in Lee County.    » read more »

December 11, 2007 -- HARRISBURG - A Gettysburg man, who was allegedly part of a $1 million cocaine and heroin ring, which operated in South Central Pennsylvania was sentenced today to seven to 20-years in state prison and a $30,000 fine.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said that Tyrone "Will, Styles, Killa" Tengbe, 22, 17 W. Railroad St., Gettysburg was sentenced by Judge Kuhn on charges that he participated in a the trafficking of cocaine and heroin from New York City to Adams and York counties for redistribution.    » read more »

December 11, 2007 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman, Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) , celebrated the U.S. Sentencing Commission's decision that a new cocaine guideline that went into effect on November 1 of this year be applied retroactively. The vote was unanimous.    » read more »

December 11, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to the United States Sentencing Commission’s decision to apply retroactivity for crack cocaine offenders’ sentences.    » read more »

December 10, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to the decision made by the Supreme Court on crack cocaine sentencing.    » read more »

Successful Interagency Maritime Interdiction Forces Smugglers to Extreme Tactics

Dec. 6, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - The Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard announced today a record year for cocaine seizures with 355,755 pounds seized, worth more than $4.7 billion.    » read more »