In March, Pablo Escobar is elected to the Colombian congress he gained support by building low-income housing, doling out money in Medellin slums and campaigning with Catholic priests. Bush combines agents from multiple agencies and military branches to form the South Florida Drug Task Force, Miami being the main entry point at the time. In the United States, Vice-President George H.W. Manuel Noriega allows Pablo Escobar to ship cocaine through Panama. The United States and Colombia ratify a bilateral extradition treaty.ġ982: Panamanian leader Gen. The drug kingpins work together to manufacture, transport and market cocaine. The alliance includes the Ochoa family, Pablo Escobar, Carolos Lehder and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. Operations continue on the island until 1983.ġ981: The Medellin cartel rises to power. Small planes transporting drugs from Colombia to the United States use the island to refuel. Jimmy Carter campaigns for president on a platform that includes decriminalizing marijuana and ending federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 1 ounce of the drug.ġ979: Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the Medellin cartel, purchases a 165-acre island in the Bahamas. Drug traffickers respond with a vendetta, killing 40 people in one weekend in what's known as the "Medellin Massacre." The event signals the new power of Colombia's cocaine industry, headquartered in Medellin.ġ976: Former Georgia Gov. November 1975: Colombian police seize 600 kilograms of cocaine - the largest seizure to date - from a small plane. July 1973: Nixon creates the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to coordinate the efforts of all other agencies. June 1971: Nixon officially declares a "war on drugs," identifying drug abuse as "public enemy No. July 14, 1969: In a special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon identifies drug abuse as "a serious national threat." Citing a dramatic jump in drug-related juvenile arrests and street crime between 19, Nixon calls for a national anti-drug policy at the state and federal level. government declared a "war on drugs." From the rise and fall of kingpins to current efforts to interdict and stamp out drugs, follow events so far: More than 1,650 pounds of opium were siezed from inside a fuel tanker in May 2005 in Kabul, Afghanistan.įour decades ago, the U.S. An Afghan Counter Narcotics Police officer guards plastic bags of opium.
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