Why Chapo Guzman was the biggest winner in the DEA's longest running drug cartel case. By David Epstein.

Kenneth Maffitt reviews “Sicario” and “Cartel Land.”

He started growing marijuana as a teenager and for four decades earned a modest living from his tiny plot tucked at the base of these rugged mountains of western Mexico. He proudly shows off his illegal plants, waist-high and fragrant, strategically hidden from view by rows of corn and nearly ready to be harvested. "I've always liked this business, producing marijuana," the 50-year-old farmer said wistfully. He had decided that this season's crop would be his last.

High stakes in the high Andes - the young backpackers risking their lives in cocaine valley. By Linda Pressly.(Nov. 24)

Police in Italy have been ordered to seize a herbal tea from Peru that has been on general sale in the country for years after it was discovered that the tea contained cocaine.

For 14 months, the first thing Dave Herrod, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, did every morning was boot up his laptop and begin tracking a 43-foot yacht with Dock Holiday painted on the stern. In the summer of 2005, the DEA had intercepted a conversation in which members of a Mexican drug cartel known as the Arellano Félix Organization discussed buying a yacht in California. Herrod and his colleagues studied the classified...

Journalists in northern Mexico face institutionalized censorship imposed by vast organized crime networks. By Dana Priest.

When it starts raining stupid, you have to figure that pretty soon the stories about evil drugs will start pelting down. By Gary Brecher.

From its hilltops to the tropics, Asia’s go-to drug is now methamphetamine. Far more than a party drug, meth is sought by factory hands and office drones alike. Millions seek out its high suited to a region powered by frantic labor. But a GlobalPost investigation into Asia’s billion-dollar meth underground reveals that this drug isn’t just produced by mere gangsters. Many of the meth trade’s key players are, in fact, armed groups overseen by Myanmar’s military.

In the first of a series of dispatches from the US’s poorest communities, we visit Beattyville, Kentucky, blighted by a lack of jobs and addiction to painkillers. By Chris McGreal.

Pablo Escobar was a notorious Colombian drug lord who died in 1993 at the height of his smuggling days. He supplied about 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the US. Escobar was known as “The King of Cocaine”, he was the wealthiest criminal in history, with an estimated net worth of US$30 billion. Obviously due to the nature of his business he was unable to use the banking system, hence he would bury his money underground in different locations in Colombia.

The night of the car bomb, my dad called home from his cell phone as he finished his rounds of the family’s bakeries. It was a nightly ritual, braving rush hour in his little silver Mazda to collect the day’s cash from each location. In early ‘90s Colombia, cash did not sit in registers a minute longer than it had to. "Almost done here," he told my mom. "I'm stopping by the store at Imbanaco next, and then heading home. If you want any food...

Ross Ulbricht, the convicted creator of the online drug market Silk Road, did not run the site alone. Over its three year history, Ulbricht hired a small staff of forum moderators and market administrators to help keep the cogs of a multi-million dollar business moving—many of whom have now been apprehended by the authorities. There were two crucial but lesser-known players involved who have yet to be publicly unmasked, however.

At the peak of his power, infamous Medellín cartel boss Pablo Escobar brought in an estimated $420 million a week in revenue, easily making him one of the wealthiest drug lords in history. Escobar, known as the "king of cocaine," saw his wealth grow so immense that he stashed piles of cash in Colombian farming fields, dilapidated warehouses, and in the walls of cartel members' homes, according to Roberto Escobar...

Pablo Escobar's son Sebastian Marroquin has described his extraordinary childhood - including details of his father's sprawling estate in the Colombian countryside.

Colombia’s most infamous drug lord has become a tourist attraction. Jesse Katz takes us on a trip to Pablo-land.

Sinaloa’s secret team of architects and builders has perfected the art of underground drug smuggling.

Members of Rockapella, from the kids show 'Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?,' perform an inspired take on their classic hit.

The search for 43 missing college students in the southern state of Guerrero has turned up at least 60 clandestine graves and 129 bodies over the last 10 months, Mexico’s attorney general’s office says. None of the remains has been connected to the youths who disappeared after a clash with police in the city of Iguala on Sept. 26, and authorities do not believe any will be. Prosecutors say the students were turned over to a drug gang that killed them...

An independent Mexican commission said on Thursday it found serious flaws in an investigation into the apparent massacre of 43 students last year, dealing a fresh blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto over a scandal that has battered his administration. The case became a symbol of impunity over disappearances and plunged Pena Nieto into his deepest crisis after the 43 trainee teachers were abducted and very likely murdered by a drug gang working with corrupt police...