Cocaine and ecstasy up, cannabis down and heroin and crack stable with user population ageing. Department of Health resarch with comments from Drugscope and Transform. Cocaine will probably come down if there are job losses in the City as the “recession” bites: that’s my prediction, not the report’s!

The problem’s in the headline. Its a tool for insurance companies and estate agents. There isn’t actually very much you can do about it yourself. It will raise fear of crime and is unlikely to prevent crime…But we shall see if anything changes. Truth is, there arent all that many resources available to shuffle around. … HOW SAFE IS YOUR AREA? MET LAUNCH ELECTRONIC CRIME MAPPING TRIAL

Latest spam/417 email purports to be from Trading Standards Central offering “prizes”.

Vietnamese cannabis factory in South Wales. Sounds as though there is some very unpleasant competition going on.

Thanks Monty, I missed this. This is Sequoia National Forest, California and again illustrates the complexity of illicit business. This time Mexican cartels are alleged to be using illegal immigrants to cultivate the plants. But closer reading reveals these people are family or close family friends, brought in illegally, not just any old illegal immigrant. … MEXICAN CARTELS RUNNING POT FARMS IN US NATIONAL FOREST

But also of interest is the charge that they committed insurance fraud to finance their operations. Police in Bologna allege the group was recruiting suicide bombers.

More boxes to tick for all you bankers out there!

All this going on in Yakima Valley. Sounds like a double bonus for them: money laundering through property and double cropping marijuana plants among the vines.

ACPO has a map…what ever happened to SOCA? Crime in the UK still controlled by Brits! It would be good to see the whole overview. A few snippets in here to tantalise, like: Bradford is the money-laundering capital of the UK!

Very brief CNN story about seizure of 5 tons of ecstasy shipped from Italy, allegedly.