Suspected members of a crime gang accused of extorting, kidnapping and drug trafficking are shown to the press in Mexico City, Eduardo Verdugo / APFrom Yahoo News/Reuters:
VIENNA (Reuters) – A U.N. anti-drug drive has backfired by making drug cartels so wealthy they can bribe their way through tracts of West Africa and Central America, the U.N. crime agency chief said on Wednesday.
The 10-year campaign had cut drug production and the number of users, said Antonio Maria Costa, but drug gangs were using their enormous profits to undermine security and development in nations already plagued by poverty, joblessness and HIV-AIDS.
Drug mobs were "buying officials, elections and parties, in a word, power," said Costa, director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
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