CHEMICAL produced in Wales is being used by law enforcement agencies throughout the world to identify smuggled stashes of cocaine.Three friends who run Celtic Chemicals, which was founded by their fathers in 1979, sell their £1,000-a-kilo cobalt-based material for use in detection kits which turn substances containing cocaine bright blue.Customers now include NIK Public Safety, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of drug detection technology.The kits are used by British police forces and US border patrols.Bridgend-based Celtic Chemicals also supply a nitrate-based solution which has become increasingly sought-after as a result of its use in the manufacture of SatNav devices and mobile phones.The company also works with Alzheim, a Powys-based outfit which uses daffodil extracts to delay the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.Celtic Chemicals has doubled its turnover in the past five years as demand for its specialist products rises.It has just announced a £20,000 investment in equipment which will allow staff to analyse the purity of chemicals with new accuracy.The company was founded by Ian Woolcock, Ray Houlton and Murray Donald, and is now run by their sons Rhys, Simon and Ben.Mr Woolcock said that being part of a multi-family company was “an interesting situation” but added: “I suppose the most unusual thing is we all still get on.”
Many hi-tech companies are developed to be sold to larger corporations, but this is not an immediate goal for the team.Mr Woolcock said: “We are in charge of our own destiny to a degree. I think the overriding feeling is it’s a positive place to be.”But he added: “It depends how big the cheque is.”
The new equipment, he said, would allow the company to manufacture greater volumes in a shorter time.He added: “This will also safeguard nine permanent jobs.” Celtic Chemicals was launched to manufacture and process organic metallic salts, widely used in a range of industries such as electronics, food, pharmaceuticals and metal finishing.
The company moved to Kenfig Industrial Estate at Bridgend three years ago when it was restructured with help from the former Welsh Development Agency. The recent £20,000 funding comes from the Assembly Government.Mr Woolcock was confident the company could continue to compete with rivals in China and the Far East.A key advantage, he said, was the speed at which it is able to meet orders. It is often able to develop products within one to two weeks.Shipping costs also allow Celtic Chemicals to compete with low-cost economies, he argued, saying: “If you’re in the UK, you can’t buy 100 kilos of a product from China. The freight costs would outweigh any cost advantage.”The company continues to look for new potential projects and collaborations on its doorstep.“We try and keep things within Wales if we can,” he said. “We’ve always got lots of irons in lots of fires.”Ieuan Wyn Jones, Minister for the Economy and Transport, said Celtic Chemicals was an example of the many small but highly innovative companies in Wales that had a global reach.“It’s great news to hear that products developed by a Welsh SME [small to medium company] are having such an impact on the fight against drug smuggling around the world.“It’s also good to hear that Celtic Chemicals has doubled its turnover and with support from the Assembly Government invested in state-of-the-art equipment that will help boost business prospects further.”The company is able to supply kosher and halal-friendly trace elements for the nutrition sector, as well allergen-free products.Its chemicals are also used in metal-finishing processes and in capacitor production.
The company serves the pharmaceutical and personal care markets by supplying pure sources of minerals.Laboratory supplies such as ammonium and zinc are provided by the kilo, and the team have developed a niche with ceramic colours.Inorganic copper, cobalt and nickel are all provided for the colouring of glazes.
rabbi who was arrested after a five-day binge of cocaine and prostitutes said that he took drugs to alleviate the loneliness he felt after his wife died.
Baruch Chalomish, 55, told a court that he began snorting the drug because he felt lonely after his wife died, insisting: “I wanted to stop feeling depressed, to feel normal.” The Israeli-born father of three, who was once an eminent Jewish academic, has in recent years built a £7 million fortune from astute share dealing and property development. The prosecution at Manchester Crown Court claim that the rabbi was the financier in a commercial cocaine-supply business while his alleged accomplice, Nasir Abbas, 54, a convicted drug dealer, provided the drugs and the customers. They rented a luxury service flat in northern Manchester over the new year holidays where the rabbi admits that he indulged to excess. Police found 101g of cocaine at the flat and his home along with cutting agents and “snap bags” but he insists that he is not a drug dealer. He stepped into the witness box to say that he felt deeply ashamed of his behaviour. He told his defence counsel, Jonathan Goldberg, QC, that he began taking cocaine three years ago when he was introduced to it by an Israeli friend with whom he celebrated the Sabbath. He was introduced in turn to Mr Abbas. Both men are accused of possessing cocaine, which Chalomish admits, and dealing the drug, which he denies. They would go to parties in flats around Manchester and snort cocaine alongside “distinguished” professionals such as doctors, he said. Chalomish frequently broke down and cried when the death of his wife, Freda, who died aged 40 in 1996, was mentioned. When asked why he took the drug, he said: “I probably wanted to forget her death.” Cocaine allowed him to feel so high he no longer had any worries, and not feel lonely any more. “This was very important to me,” he said. The rabbi, who agreed he spent up to £1,000 a week on cocaine, bowed his head and cried as he admitted he paid prostitutes to have sex with him. He said he bought the cocaine from Mr Abbas, who also organised the parties.He insisted that he bought only the purest cocaine from Mr Abbas, who provided “the best in town”. Chalomish said: “If you go to the streets you buy cocaine, they can mix it with dangerous things. And I didn’t want to have this so when I have pure cocaine I know nothing is mixed with it. I know I’m not taking something which can damage my health more than cocaine itself.” The rabbi told the court that by the time he was arrested in an hotel apartment on Shudehill, Manchester, on January 5, he had been on a cocaine and prostitute binge that had lasted up to five days.
He admitted he was “exhausted” as he had been doing “a lot of sniffing”.
The rabbi told the court he was introduced to one prostitute called Emma. He had paid between £400 and £500 to spend two days with her.
Asked why police found so much cocaine in his house in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, Chalomish said: “First of all it is difficult to get pure stuff. Once you get it, you get quite a lot, so I know I have supplies for the next three or six months.” Asked by his counsel how he felt now the court case had been reported in the media, Chalomish replied: “Deeply ashamed. It is probably the biggest punishment I have ever had in my life.” Mr Abbas failed to turn up for the trial, which has gone ahead in his absence. The jury has been told that he telephoned his solicitor on the eve of the trial to claim that the rabbi had made a threatening call and had sent heavies to his house to warn him off.Chalomish denies making any such threats. The trial continues.
Figures released today show the number of women under 35 treated for addiction has gone from 790 to 1,261 since 2005.
For men under 35, the increase is equally stark, up to 5,263 from 3,024 in 2005.
Rosa O'Connor, director of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, said there was some good news, with figures showing fewer women were seeking treatment for crack and heroin addiction.
'It is good news that women are turning away from heroin and crack, the most problematic drugs, but we are concerned by the increase in cocaine dependence,' she said.She warned of the dangers for women using cocaine and alcohol together.
The drugs could damage their fertility, cause paranoia and heart problems, she said.
The price of a line of cocaine has plummeted in recent years - along with purity.
Bangkok-based drug-users support group and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids out of Canada on Thursday accused the Thai police of committing serious ethical violation by setting a pseudo sting operation to nab injection drug users (IDU) while seeking treatment.Nearly half of the 252 IDU surveyed said police has planted drugs on them and claimed that they had to pay bribe to the police to avoid arrest.
"This form of drug planting was found to be associated with numerous health-related harms including syringe sharing and drug-related overdose," said Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG) and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (Vancouver, Canada), in a statement released Thursday.
royal musician accused of carrying out a string of burglaries was addicted to heroin during her time as Prince Charles’s harpist, she told a court.
Jemima Phillips, who was appointed Charles’s harpist in 2004, told a court in Gloucester Wednesday she started using crack cocaine, and then heroin five years ago.
Phillips, 28, who performed at Charles’s wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 and other royal events attended by the Queen, is accused of stealing cash and electrical goods in four raids on private homes carried out along with her boyfriend. In her three years as the Prince’s harpist she played at royal residences, including Balmoral Castle, Clarence House and Highgrove, as well as the House of Commons.Phillips told the court she had endured a string of “disastrous” relationships and started using crack cocaine after having her second abortion.
The court heard that shortly afterwards she started a relationship with a man who introduced her to heroin and violently beat her. Phillips said although she fled from him and returned to her parents’ home in Gloucestershire, her heroin habit “increased”. She met co-defendant William Davies on a street corner in Gloucester in January this year, when he gave her a bag of heroin. Prosecutor Martin Steen said the pair raided four homes between May 22 and May 28 and stole a handbag, TV, guitar, mobile phones, cameras, wallets, bank cards and laptops - which she denies.
Heroin is typically injected or snorted by users though it can be smoked. In spite of the negative consequences in his life, the one who is a heroin addict continues to use the drug. He is not able to choose. The need for heroin becomes a driving force in his life.As with any other drugs, the body builds up a tolerance for heroin. The addict will have to use larger amounts in order to achieve the high. In time, the addict will have to take heroin several times per day trying to avoid the withdrawal symptoms. The repeated use leads to addiction, whether you are using needles or not.The most common experiences a user can have when he becomes dependent on the heroin are cravings in between uses, spending time thinking about the last time they got high and what the next high will be like, focusing on where and when they can get the next dose, sudden financial difficulties and erratic behavior, track marks around injection points.Using heroin it affects the way nerves in the spinal cord communicate pain sensations to the brain. Shortly after the drug is snorted or injected, it creates an intense feeling of pleasure. Heroin works on the pleasure centers in the brain by affecting the level of dopamine that it produces. People who want to quit using heroin do better when they are well motivated to do so.
The motivation may come from the person who is addicted to heroin themselves or because of the involvement of concerned friends or family members. When someone detoxes from heroin, they are going to experience a series of withdrawal symptoms, like diarrhea, insomnia, muscle aches, vomiting, etc.The withdrawal symptoms will start within a few hours after the person stops using heroin, with the peak occurring within 24-72 hours. Symptoms of withdrawal may be present for a week after the last time the addict used the drug. Ideally, this step in heroin treatment is performed under the supervision of a doctor.
Sixteen-year-old model meets penniless future rock star almost eight years her senior and is instantly smitten, they eventually marry, have two children, and live happily ever after.Apart from the last bit, that's the ballad of Mary Forsberg Weiland, who has just written a memoir of her life with Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland -- her soon-to-be ex-husband.An awful lot of drug use together condemned their union, as she vividly relates in "Fall to Pieces," whose title comes from a song by her husband's former band Velvet Revolver. Mental illness (her) and incarceration (both) did not help.But the book is no angry tirade from a woman scorned. Indeed, she says it has the blessing of Scott Weiland, who is working on his own autobiography.For all the death and devastation detailed in its pages, the book is surprisingly funny. Even in the depths of junkie despair, she could see the absurdity of taking a limo -- "the douchemobile" -- to one of the couple's countless rehab stints."It's easier to connect with somebody, I think, if there's humor there," she said in a recent interview. "I don't want anybody to think my life is tragic, or I'm playing victim."
In person, Mary Weiland looks like your typical suburban 34-year-old ex-model and mother of two. There is no indication that her face and arms were once covered in scabs or that she injected heroin wherever she could find a spot.
"I never went so far as my neck," she cautions. "I don't think I could have done that."The book traces her early days in a dysfunctional and impoverished southern California family. She started modeling at 14, quit school at 15, and traveled the world making great money.Her future husband had an $8-an-hour job driving models in his beat-up car to their assignments around Los Angeles. She knew upon their first meeting in 1991 that they would be married. Alas, he was dating a woman who would become his first wife, but he deftly strung both women along for many years.
Their relationship was doomed from the start. Scott Weiland's drug use prevented Stone Temple Pilots from building on the promise of its first two hit albums, and he was often in court and on pundits' death-watch lists.His career gets little space in the book. She says she was careful not to involve herself in band matters, and is not completely sure which of his songs are about her.At any rate, she was too busy getting high to analyze the Billboard charts. She was a hard-core heroin user for "a really horrible year" until he was sentenced to a year in jail in 1999 for violating his probation on various drug charges.
The four drugs where more than 50 percent of the deaths were caused by the drug when the drug was found, were heroin (86.9 percent), methadone (73.4 percent), fentanyl (56.4 percent), and oxycodone (56.1 percent), according the The Florida Department of Law Enforcement report released this morning. The information is for the first six months of the year and provided by Florida medical examiners.During that period there were approximately 88,500 deaths in Florida. Of those, 4,199 individuals were found to have died with one or more of the drugs specified in this report in their bodies.Deaths caused by heroin increased by 20.5 percent over the last half of 2008.
The report also indicates that prescription drugs continued to be found more often than illicit drugs in both lethal and non-lethal levels during the first part of this year. Prescription drugs account for 79 percent of all drug occurrences in this report when alcohol is excluded. According to the report, in Fort Myers 19 people who died had lethal levels of oxycodone; 17 had lethal levels of methadone; 16 had lethal levels of alprazolan; seven had lethal levels of morphine; seven had lethal levels of cocaine; four had lethal levels of heroin; four had lethal levels of hydrocodone; and two had lethal levels of propoxyphene.
Professor David Nutt, who was the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, sparked outrage earlier this week after he criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug.It is understood Home Secretary Alan Johnson asked him to consider his position in the wake of the comments, saying he had "no confidence" in him.The charity DrugScope said the development was "extremely serious and concerning".Director of communications, Harry Shapiro, said: "There are few areas of policy as important but at the same time as difficult, complex and emotive as drugs policy. That is why it is vitally important that the Government receives advice that is not only evidence based, objective and robust but that is also public and transparent."However, former Government chief scientific adviser Sir David King said Professor Nutt had "stepped over the line" in criticising a politician.On Friday night, he said that advisers had to maintain the trust of both public and ministers and it was important to do that in a sensitive way."I think that where David has stepped over the line is being openly critical of the politician concerned," he said.
Asya Richardson, through her lawyer, claims she was unaware that the man she knew as a music company impresario used drug money for the down payment on the house just outside Mullica Hill they bought in the summer of 2005.former girlfriend of drug kingpin Alton "Ace Capone" Coles, wants her money-laundering conviction, linked to the couple's purchase of a luxurious home in South Jersey, overturned.
"Asya Richardson was a naive young woman who fell in love with, and was duped by, Alton Coles, a deceptive, manipulative individual . . . who hid his illegal activities from her and used her as part of his legitimate front to the outside world," Richardson's lawyer, Ellen C. Brotman, argued in a post-trial motion heard today by U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick.Brotman has asked the judge either to overturn Richardson's conviction or grant her a new trial. Surrick, after an hour-long hearing, said he would take the issue under advisement. Not surprisingly, federal prosecutors argued that the conviction should stand.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bresnick said that Richardson, 28, knowingly went along with Coles, helping to launder drug proceeds by negotiating the down payment on the $488,000 house with cash transferred from his bank accounts and by lying about her employment and income records."All the evidence established that she knew Coles was a drug dealer and she knew his money was drug money," Bresnick said, describing the house purchase as a "classic money-laundering case."Coles was arrested at the Gloucester County residence, on Dillon's Lane just outside Mullica Hill, in August 2005 as investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms and Explosives launched a series of raids that capped a two-year investigation of his $25 million cocaine network. Coles and Richardson had moved into the property two weeks earlier.Richardson was later charged with money-laundering and conspiracy to commit money-laundering. She is the half-sister of former Philadelphia baseketball star Jerome "Pooh" Richardson, who called her hours before the raid to warn that the "feds were coming."Pooh Richardson testified for the prosecution this year at the trial of a former Philadelphia police detective who was convicted of obstruction of justice for leaking him information about the raid.
Aysa Richardson was convicted along with Coles and four others, including a second Coles girlfriend, in March 2008. Coles, 35, was sentenced to life plus 55 years. Richardson has had her sentence delayed pending the outcome of her post-trial motions. She could be sentenced to 78 months. Whatever the outcome, the motions have offered a look at the twisted relationship between Coles and the women he dated while under investigation.Brotman, in papers filed last year, said Coles "used the women in his life as tools of his trade."
Smugglers are loading up mini planes with sacks of marijuana in a bid to evade Moroccan security. Investigations carried out by Moroccan police have exposed dozens of Spaniards believed to be violating their airspace. Some 13 drug planes have already been intercepted this year, while just seven were seized in 2007. Last month, two Spaniards were arrested for undertaking a drug smuggling reconnaissance mission. They were spotted circling over the east of Morocco, in another trademark mini plane.
cocaine trafficking syndicate has been cracked in a series of raids on the Gold Coast, police say.The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) and Gold Coast police simultaneously executed five search warrants on properties at Carrara, Southport, Burleigh Waters, Surfers Paradise and Molendinar on Thursday morning.Four people were arrested during the raids with charges relating to the trafficking of dangerous drugs, possession of prohibited drugs and possession of firearms laid.
A total of 2.5kg of cocaine was seized during the entire operation, with a street value estimated by the CMC at $750,000.Police also seized $37,650 in cash, steroids, a .357 Magnum firearm and ammunition.The raids signal the closure of a 13-month anti-organised crime operation led by the CMC in partnership with various Queensland and NSW police services.
Royal Dutch Gymnastics Federation handed Yuri van Gelder a one-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine at the Dutch Championships in June, ending his chances to compete at the 2012 Olympics.Van Gelder will be able to return to international competition in the summer of 2010, but International Olympic Committee rules stipulate that athletes who receive any sort of suspension for more than six months are not eligible to compete at the next Olympic Games. …
Gymnastics Examiner – After cocaine suspension, Yuri van Gelder will miss 2012 Olympics
Federal prosecutors say Lambda Iota became a drug house during the 2006 - 2007 school year. Twenty-five-year-old Bent Cardan of California supplied the fraternity president with the cocaine. He'll also be on four years supervised release and pay a $4,000 fine. Cardan's Connecticut supplier is serving a 70-month sentence for drug trafficking. The former fraternity president, 25-year-old Christopher Duncan, is serving two years probation. The Justice Department has moved to seize the frat house.former University of Vermont student will spend six months in jail for supplying drugs to his fraternity's cocaine ring.
Alcohol and cigarettes are more dangerous than illegal drugs such as cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, the government's top drugs advisor said Thursday.Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London called for a new system of classifying drugs to enable the public to better understand the relative harm of legal and illegal substances.
Alcohol would rank as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone, he said in a briefing paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London.Tobacco would come ninth on the list and cannabis, LSD and ecstasy "while harmful, are ranked lower at 11, 14 and 18 respectively". The ranking is based on physical harm, dependence and social harm.
"No one is suggesting that drugs are not harmful. The critical question is one of scale and degree," said Nutt, the chairman of the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.He added: "We have to accept young people like to experiment -- with drugs and other potentially harmful activities -- and what we should be doing in all of this is to protect them from harm at this stage of their lives.
"We therefore have to provide more accurate and credible information. If you think that scaring kids will stop them using, you are probably wrong."Nutt criticised ministers for their decision to upgrade the classification of cannabis in January from class C -- which includes tranquillisers and some painkillers -- to the higher class B alongside amphetamines.The decision, which increases the penalties to a maximum 14 years in jail for dealing and five years for possession, was against scientific advice and came just five years after cannabis had been downgraded from class B to C.Nutt said such policies "distort" and "devalue" research evidence and lead to mixed messages to the public.While he acknowledged that cannabis was "harmful", he said its use does not lead to major health problems. Users faced a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness compared to the risks of smokers contracting lung cancer.Nutt caused controversy earlier this year by saying that taking ecstasy was no more dangerous than horseriding, a claim he repeated in his paper.
Mexican navy said the 1,967-pound of cocaine was seized aboard a ship bound for the United States during a weekend raid last week in the Puerto Progreso harbour on the Yucatan Peninsula. Navy inspectors in the port town of Progreso on the southeastern shore of Mexico said they slit open one of the frozen sharks after detecting an anomaly on an X-ray and black bags filled with rectangular cocaine packets spilled out. Drug gangs are coming up with increasingly creative ways of getting drugs into the United States in sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture as Mexico's military cracks down on the cartels moving South American narcotics north.
United Kingdom is the cocaine capital of Europe, with more than a million regular users taking the drug, according to a new report.And one of Scotland's top drug experts said yesterday that given the biggest per capita consumption was north of the Border, the country was probably Europe's capital of the class A substance.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the UK was Europe's largest cocaine market. But its report said the quality of the drug had declined dramatically in recent years.The report said a crackdown on traffickers had pushed cocaine prices up and led to dealers diluting the drug even more.Some seizures by police revealed that substances being passed off as cocaine that were only 5 per cent pure.The UN found dealers mixing their product with cutting agents such as dental and veterinary anaesthetics, which mimic the effects of cocaine but are much cheaper.There are estimated to be 860,000 cocaine users in England and Wales and about 140,000 in Northern Ireland and Scotland combined. The World Drug Report 2009 revealed that cocaine use had increased dramatically in the UK from the mid-1990s, but remained stable over the past two years.
Data given to the UN by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency shows that wholesale prices have risen to record levels. The cost of a kilogram of cocaine has increased by 50 per cent – from £30,000 to £45,000 – since 2007.
The report says: "The UK thus continues to be – in absolute numbers – Europe's largest cocaine market, with its second highest cocaine use prevalence rate."
Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, said he was not surprised at the UN's conclusions."A few years ago I said that in due course cocaine would overtake heroin, and I think that's what we're going to see. Heroin use may have plateaued at quite a high level, but cocaine use has been rising quite dramatically."He added: "Scotland typically is the highest centre of drug consumption in the UK anyway, so it could well be that it is the cocaine capital of Europe."
Families of chaotic drug users are to be given an antidote to keep their relatives alive in the event of a heroin overdose in a pilot scheme to be launched this week.
The drug, naloxone, and training in how to use it, will be given to 950 families in 16 areas of the country, but could be rolled out eventually to a quarter of a million. Experts believe it could save hundreds of lives."It virtually instantaneously reverses the overdose," said Professor John Strang, the director of the national addiction centre, at King's Health Partners in London, one of the new academic health sciences centres. "For many years ambulance crews have had it. This is the logical next step."Surveys of families have revealed that about a quarter have at some time been present when a relative or partner has accidentally overdosed. At the moment, all they can do is ring for an ambulance and hope it arrives in time.Strang's team asked families whether they would like to be taught how to deal with an overdose. "They virtually bit our hands off with enthusiasm," he said. "The results were so obvious you can't believe we haven't spotted this and introduced it years ago."
One in 25 deaths across the world are linked to alcohol consumption, Canadian experts have suggested.Writing in the Lancet, the team from the University of Toronto added that the level of disease linked to drinking affects poorest people the most. Worldwide, average alcohol consumption is around 12 units a week - but in Europe that soars to 21.5. The report authors warn the effect of alcohol disease is similar to that of smoking a decade ago. We face a large and increasing alcohol-attributable burden Dr Jurgen Rehm.The analysis also found that 5% of years lived with disability are attributable to alcohol consumption. The paper says that, although there have been some benefits of moderate drinking in relation to cardiovascular disease, these are far outweighed by the detrimental effects of alcohol on disease and injury. In addition to diseases directly caused by drinking, such as liver disorders, a wide range of other conditions such as mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, depression and stroke are linked to drinking. Drinking patterns do vary around the world, and the researchers point out that most of the adult population - 45% of men and 66% of women - abstain from drinking alcohol for most of them for their life. Across the Americas, average consumption is 17 units per week, while the Middle East was the lowest at 1.3 units per week. For 2004, the latest year for which comparable data are available on a global level, 3.8% of all global deaths (around 1 in 25) were attributable to alcohol. Overall, alcohol-attributable deaths have increased since 2000 mainly because of increases in the number of women drinking. Europe had the highest proportion of deaths related to alcohol, with 1 in 10 deaths directly attributable.
Within Europe, the former Soviet Union countries had the highest proportion at 15%, or around one in seven deaths. This study is a global wake-up call Professor Ian Gilmore, Royal College of Physicians president Globally, men are five times more likely to die from alcohol-related illness than women.
And young people are more likely to have a disease linked to alcohol than older people.
11 inmates at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran were reported injured in a riot involving rival Hispanic gang factions just after noon today, prison officials reported.Around 75 inmates were involved in the incident. Some participants used inmate-manufactured stabbing and slashing weapons in the uprising, which started at around 12:08 p.m., reported prison spokesman Lt. Dave James.No correctional officers were injured, James reported.“Initial intelligence indicates that it [riot] may have been gang-motivated,” said Ken Clark, prison warden. A full investigation is under way, Clark said.Only one of the 11 inmates was injured seriously enough to merit transportation by helicopter to a nearby, unnamed hospital. That inmate is listed in stable condition, James reported.
The other 10 injuries are not considered life-threatening, James reported, and the injured inmates were transported “offsite to area hospitals for medical attention.”
Correctional officers used pepper spray, rubber-baton rounds and two warning shots from a Mini-14 rifle to stop the fighting, James reported. Officers then confiscated 28 improvised weapons from the scene.The facility, a maximum-security prison, is located five miles south of Corcoran, which is in turn located in Kern County southwest of Tulare.
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