As Russia deepens its military and counternarcotics involvement in Latin America, the United States has to decide whether this represents competition, or welcome cooperation in the war on drugs.

The Mosquito Coast, which stretches along Nicaragua’s Atlantic coastline and into Honduras, is an increasingly important transit point for drug flights from South America, according to a report.

Nicaragua's appeals court will review the sentences handed to 18 Mexicans found guilty of drug trafficking after being arrested while traveling as journalists, in a test of the court system's capacity to effectively administer justice to transnational criminals.

The pattern of releases and penalty reductions for prisoners convicted of drug trafficking in Nicaragua give an insight into the deep penetration of the drug trade into the judicial system, which has helped make the country a legal paradise for traffickers.

Authorities in Nicaragua and Russia announced they had broken up a trafficking ring headed by a member of the Zetas, in what could be a sign the Mexican drug trafficking organization is looking to open up new routes to Europe and beyond.

The governments of Central America and the Dominican Republic are planning measures to share information on criminal records and allow “hot pursuit” chases across borders, in an effort to fight transnational criminal groups.

A report from a Nicaraguan think-tank analyzing crime and violence in one of the semi-autonomous zones on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast highlights the influence of the drug trade in the region, which helped bring about the country's highest incidence of crime in 2011.

Communities in Nicaragua's Autonomous Region of the Northern Atlantic say that Honduras drug traffickers are harassing families in the area, another illustration of how a lawless area can affect multiple countries.

A Nicaraguan court convicted 18 Mexicans, who posed as Televisa journalists while smuggling millions of dollars in cash, of money laundering and drug trafficking, but questions persist about the media company's connection to the case.

Demand from Chinese buyers has contributed to the growth of an illicit trafficking network that is moving record amounts of granadillo wood out of Nicaragua, according to a new report by investigative website Confidencial.