The scale of the illegal drugs business, the violence, the complicity of bankers in laundering money and the absolute power of the drug barons is beyond comprehension. Cormac O’Keeffe on an escalating world crisis.

THE reputed leader of one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels was extradited to the US yesterday to face drug- trafficking charges, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.

Mexican federal police arrested two suspected gang leaders, delivering another big blow to a brutal drug cartel that terrorised the border city of Tijuana for several year