Drugs

THERE can be no cooler claim to fame than to be name-checked in one of the greatest pop songs ever written.

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks, released at the height of the Swinging Sixties, featured a couple referred to only by their first names — Terry and Julie.

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Julie was Julie Christie, the drop-dead gorgeous actress, and Terry was Terence Stamp, her real-life boyfriend.

The accomplished actor died yesterday morning, aged 87, and last night his family led the tributes to him.

They said in a statement: “He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer, that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come.”

Along with a handful of other leading men from humble backgrounds such as Michael Caine and Albert Finney, Stamp epitomised a new breed of screen star.

Ruggedly handsome, uncompromising and from a tough working-class background, he shot to fame with his first movie.

But as the Sixties drew to a close, it looked as though the sun was also setting on his career — and it was almost a decade before he triumphantly reappeared.

The oldest of five children, he was born Terence Henry Stamp on July 22, 1938, in Bow, East London, to mother Ethel and father Thomas, a £12-a-week tugboat stoker.

‘I was in pain. I took drugs – everything’

That made him, according to the saying, a genuine Cockney — “born within the sound of Bow bells”.

His first home had no bathroom, only a tub in the backyard which he would be dragged into on Friday evenings.

He later remembered: “The first one in would get second-degree burns — and the last one frostbite.”

In 2016, he said of his childhood: “The great blessing of my life is that I had the really hard bit at the beginning. We were really poor.

“I couldn’t tell anybody that I wanted to be an actor because it was just out of the question. I would have been laughed at.

“When we got our first TV, I started saying, ‘Oh I could do that’ and my dad wore it for a little bit.

“After I’d said, ‘Oh I’m sure I could do better than that guy’, he looked at me and he said, ‘Son, people like us don’t do things like that’.”

As an 18-year-old, he tried to evade National Service — a year and a half of compulsory duty in the military — by claiming to have nosebleeds but was saved when he failed his medical because of fallen arches.

Determined to realise his dream, Stamp left home and moved into a basement flat on London’s Harley Street with another promising young Cockney actor — Michael Caine. The pair became firm friends and ended up in repertory theatre, touring around the UK together.

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Stamp’s performances soon brought him to the attention of acclaimed writer and director Peter Ustinov, who gave him the lead role in the 1962 historical drama movie Billy Budd. He was an overnight success.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, he also won the hearts of millions of female fans. And with his first Hollywood pay cheque, the image-conscious actor celebrated by buying himself a Savile Row suit and bleaching his hair blond.

Stamp heeded the career advice Ustinov gave him — to only accept job offers when something he really wanted came his way.

That may explain why he made only ten movies between 1962 and 1977.

His most famous role was as Sergeant Troy in Far From The Madding Crowd in 1967 — where he met and fell in love with co-star Julie Christie.

While Stamp was fast becoming a screen icon, his younger brother Chris was making waves in the music biz.

I was someone who was desperately unhappy. I was in pain. I took drugs — everything

Terence Stamp

Stamp Junior managed The Who and Jimi Hendrix, and was friends with many music legends of the time.

Talking about The Kinks’ classic Waterloo Sunset, written by frontman Ray Davies, Terence said: “My brother was quite friendly with him.

“He asked Ray Davies about that lyric and Ray Davies told my brother that, yes, he was visualising Julie and me when he wrote the lyric.”

But by the end of the decade, Stamp’s career was on the wane — and he was devastated when his “Face of the Sixties” model girlfriend Jean Shrimpton walked out on him — beginning what he called his “lost years”.

He said: “I’d lost the only thing I thought was permanent.

“The revelation came to me then — nothing is permanent, so what was the point trying to maintain a permanent state?

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“I was someone who was desperately unhappy. I was in pain. I took drugs — everything.”

He clung on to a feeling that “the call would come” — but the wait was a long one.

It finally came in 1977 when he was offered the part of General Zod in Superman.

He took it — mainly because it gave him the chance to appear alongside his acting hero Marlon Brando.

The part brought him to the attention of a new audience — and last night fans paid tribute to his portrayal of the banished alien villain.

In a nod to his role as the evil leader who demanded his enemies show him deference, one fan wrote on X: “Thank you Terry . . . we will kneel today in your honour.”

Another wrote: “Terence Stamp was much more than Zod but at the same time one of the best comic book villains ever.”

‘My present was a box of Star Wars stencils’

Making up for lost time after the 1978 release of Superman, Stamp made dozens of films from then until 2021, showing off his huge range.

He won universal praise for his portrayal of an East End villain in The Limey (1999) and transgender woman Bernadette Bassenger in The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert. Stamp also played Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum in Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace, although the director George Lucas did not give him a huge payday.

He once cornered a producer during the shoot and complained about the pay.

He recalled: “I said, ‘Listen, you’re not paying much money and it’s making hundreds of millions. What goes down? What happens?’

“She said, ‘If the actors are really good, George gives them a present’.

“I thought, ooh, that’s all right. So when I leave the studio I go into my dressing room and there’s a box. It was a box of Star Wars stencils.

“That was my present. I just couldn’t believe it. I thought, may the Force be with you, George. I didn’t keep my stencils. I left them in the dressing room.”

Around that time, he said: “I moved from England some time ago because I wasn’t getting any work.

“I’m getting work in America and my films appear in France but for some reason I’m not getting any offers in Britain.”

But he kept himself busy by launching a successful parallel career as an author, writing five bestselling memoirs and two cookbooks.

He continued to select interesting roles and made a series of memorable cameo appearances, most recently, in 2021, in Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller Last Night In Soho.

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Although he dated some of the world’s most beautiful women, including Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot and sisters Joan and Jackie Collins, he married only once — to Elizabeth O’Rourke.

The pharmacist was 35 years his junior and the marriage lasted from 2002 to 2008.

He admitted he was upset by the split but added: “I always said I’ll try anything once, other than incest or Morris dancing.

“I’d never been married and I thought I would try it, but I couldn’t make a go of it.”

Looking back on his career, he once said: “I’d be lying if I said I was completely indifferent to the success of all my contemporaries. There are parts I would love to have had a stab at, but I see the decisions I made as invaluable.

“I’m not just chasing an Oscar. I am learning how to die — how to build something within myself that does not become dust.”

A JUDGE who controversially allowed a knife-wielding drug dealer to stay in the UK was on the board of a pro-asylum charity.

Fiona Beach declared Christian Quadjovie, 26, was not a threat to the public.

The French-born crook had been locked up for a total of 963 days since arriving here aged ten in 2009.

But he was granted a reprieve by Judge Beach, an ex-director at Asylum Aid who represented migrants for free on behalf of the Bail for Immigration Detainees charity.

The decision has since been overturned after Government lawyers claimed her judgment was “made against the weight of evidence”.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said Judge Beach’s apparent conflict of interest “undermines confidence” in the courts.

He added: “This is the latest example of an immigration judge with open borders views.

“The similarity between her decisions and the political views she has broadcast totally undermines confidence in the system. Judges must be independent.”

Last night, in a letter seen by The Sun on Sunday, Mr Jenrick made a formal request to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office to probe whether Judge Beach, 54, had declared her previous roles.

In 2005 and 2007, she was listed in a “thank you” section of the Bail in Immigration annual report, and named as a barrister volunteering to represent its clients in court.

Records show she was a director of Asylum Aid between September 2004 and February 2007.

Judicial sources insisted she stepped back from the group in December 2006 when appointed as a part-time judge.

In 2018 she was made a salaried tribunal judge. She first heard Quadjovie’s case in April 2024.

He was first convicted as a boy of 12 after sexually assaulting a girl under 13.

In 2016, he was given a nine-month referral order for carrying a knife in public.

Later that year, he was convicted of drug offences. He was detained for 30 months and caught with more drugs after his release.

The Home Office tried to deport him but he argued he would not be able to reintegrate in France.

A judiciary spokesman said all judges took an oath to remain impartial.

He added: “In each case, judges make decisions based on the evidence and arguments presented, and apply the law as it stands.”

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Australians consumed drugs with a street value of about $7.5bn, representing a 34 percent rise in annual consumption.

There has been a sharp rise in drug use among Australians, with cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin consumption all hitting record levels, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) latest wastewater analysis.

Published on Friday, the ACIC’s annual report revealed that Australians consumed an estimated 22.2 tonnes of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA (commonly known as “ecstasy”) between August 2023 and August 2024.

This represents a 34 percent increase on the previous year’s findings, with marked increases in the consumption of cocaine (69 percent), MDMA (49 percent), methamphetamine (21 percent), and heroin (14 percent).

The drugs had a combined estimated street value of 11.5 billion Australian dollars (about $7.5bn), according to the ACIC. Meth alone accounted for 8.9 billion Australian dollars (about $5.8bn) – or 78 percent – of that total.

Wastewater analysis, the process of testing sewage water for contaminants, is a widely used tool to measure drug use within national populations. The data was collected from Australia’s capital cities and regional sites, covering some 57 percent of the country.

The increase in drug consumption reflects the “recovery of these illicit drug markets following the impact of COVID-19 restrictions”, the ACIC report said.

It added that “transnational and domestic serious and organised crime groups have rapidly re-established and expanded their operations” following the pandemic.

ACIC chief Heather Cook said crime groups are exploiting high demand for illicit drugs in Australia, where they are “maximising profit at the expense of the community’s security and wellbeing”.

“The 2.2 tonne increase in national meth consumption is concerning because 12.8 tonnes is the highest annual level recorded by the programme and the drug causes significant community harm,” she said.

“Similarly, there has been a large increase in national cocaine consumption, also to the highest annual level recorded by our wastewater programme,” Cook added.

Wastewater was also tested for alcohol and nicotine – which remained the most consumed lawful drugs – as well as cannabis and ketamine.

Cannabis remained the most consumed illicit drug among Australians, with higher average consumption in regional areas than in capital cities. Capital cities, however, recorded higher consumption of cocaine, MDMA, heroin and ketamine.

The Northern Territory saw the highest increase in meth, cocaine and MDMA consumption, according to the report, while Tasmania recorded the highest increase in heroin.

The increases in meth, cocaine and MDMA consumption are likely to continue up to 2027, according to ACIC data modelling.

FORMER Premier League star Ronnie Stam has been jailed for SEVEN YEARS after being found guilty of drug smuggling.

The former Wigan Athletic ace was charged with conspiring to smuggle more than TWO TONNES of cocaine into his homeland.

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The street value of the cocaine, which was set to arrive from South America, was a whopping £48.6MILLION.

Stam was facing a total of 13 years behind bars as prosecutors deemed him to be a major player in the operation.

But the 41 years has been handed a seven-year custodial sentence instead.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..

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Cannabis stocks soar after US president says he is ‘looking at’ reclassification.

United States President Donald Trump has said his administration is “looking at” reclassifying cannabis as a less dangerous drug.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said he would make a determination on the legal classification of the drug over the next few weeks.

“That determination hopefully will be the right one,” Trump said. “It’s a very complicated subject.”

Trump said that while he had heard “great things” about medical-use cannabis, he had heard bad things about “just about everything else” to do with the drug.

“Some people like it, some people hate it,” he said. “Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children.”

Stocks in cannabis-related businesses soared following Trump’s remarks.

New York-based Tilray Brands jumped nearly 42 percent, with Canada’s Village Farms International and Canopy Growth Corp closing up about 34 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

Trump made his comments after The Wall Street Journal reported last week that he told attendees at a recent fundraising dinner that he was interested in reclassifying the drug.

While cannabis is fully legal, including for recreational use, in 24 US states, the use and possession of the drug is illegal at the federal level.

Cannabis is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, putting it in the same category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

Under the Drug Enforcement Administration’s classification system, Schedule I drugs are defined as those with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”.

Former US President Joe Biden proposed reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III drug – defined as those with a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” – but failed to enact the change before leaving office in January.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi says Venezuelan president one of the world’s ‘largest narco-traffickers’.

The United States has offered a $50m reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, doubling an earlier reward of $25m set by the Trump administration in January.

The US has accused the Venezuelan leader of being one of the world’s leading narco-traffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.

In a video posted to social media on Thursday announcing the “historic” increase in reward money, US Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Maduro of collaborating with Venezuelan crime syndicates Tren de Aragua, Cartel of the Suns and the notorious Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.

“He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security. Therefore, we doubled his reward to $50 million,” Bondi said.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice, and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” she said, before giving the public a hotline phone number where they can report tips.

Bondi also said that the US Department of Justice had so far seized more than $700m in assets linked to Maduro, including two private jets, nine vehicles, and claimed that tonnes of seized cocaine had been traced directly to the president.

Today, @TheJusticeDept and @StateDept are announcing a $50 MILLION REWARD for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro. pic.twitter.com/D8LNqjS9yk

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 7, 2025

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil responded on the Telegram platform to Bondi’s announcement, saying it was “the most ridiculous smokescreen ever seen” and designed to distract attention from the Jeffrey Epstein controversy in the US.

“It does not surprise us, coming from who it comes from. The same one who promised a non-existent ‘secret list’ of Epstein and who wallows in scandals of political favours,” the minister said.

“Her show is a joke, a desperate distraction from her own miseries. The dignity of our homeland is not for sale. We reject this crude political propaganda operation,” he said.

Maduro was indicted in a US federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency, along with several close allies, on federal drug charges.

At the time, the US offered a $15m reward for his arrest. That was later raised by the Biden administration to $25m – the same amount the US offered for the capture of Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

In June, a former director of the Venezuelan military intelligence pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges in the US, a week before his trial was set to begin.

Hugo Carvajal, who served in the government of the late President Hugo Chavez from 2004 to 2011, admitted guilt in four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine and weapons charges.

US federal prosecutors had alleged the former major-general, along with other high-ranking Venezuelan government and military officials, led a drug cartel that attempted to “flood” the US with cocaine.

Carvajal had served as a diplomat representing Maduro’s government before breaking with him to support the country’s US-backed political opposition. He was extradited from Spain to the US in July 2023 following more than a decade-long campaign by the Justice Department.

Despite the US rewards, Maduro remains in power after his re-election as president in 2024 in a vote that was condemned as a sham by Washington, the European Union and several Latin American governments.

Last month, the Trump administration struck a deal to secure the release of 10 Americans jailed in Caracas in exchange for Venezuela seeing the return home of dozens of people deported by the US to El Salvador under the Trump administration’s new immigration crackdown.

Shortly after, the White House also reversed course and allowed US oil giant Chevron to resume drilling in Venezuela after it was previously blocked by US sanctions.

THIS is the shocking moment a Virgin Atlantic passenger hurled abuse at a hostess he threatened to “gang rape and set alight”

Disturbing footage shows Salman Iftikhar, 37, tell stewardess Angie Walsh she would be attacked in her hotel after landing.

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He spouted his vile rant after downing champagne on an eight-hour flight from London Heathrow to Lahore on February 7 2023.

Iftikhar said Ms Walsh would be taken from her hotel room, gang raped and set on fire.

Another passenger, who filmed the shocking scenes, can be heard saying “holy s–t”.

Iftikhar repeatedly accuses Ms Walsh of being a racist and says: “You called me a p-ki in front of everybody.”

The 37-year-old had been flying with his wife and three children, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Prosecuting, Abdul Kapadia, said: “During the defendant’s first meal service, the defendant was seen helping himself to ice, leaning over the bar he was drinking at, and taking ice with his hands.

“When told to stop, the defendant became irate, and started to film cabin crew with his phone, telling them: ‘Do not tell me what to do you b***h.

“When asked by the cabin crew to return to his seat, he then said: ‘Don’t tell me what to do you racist f***ing b***h. I know where you are from in Cardiff.”

Staff alerted the pilot and the seat belt signs were turned on, which only aggravated Iftikhar more.

He continued to call Ms Walsh a “f***ing b***h” before his escalating behaviour sparked a possible flight diversion to Turkey.

“The defendant was informed of this possible diversion, to which he replied: ‘I don’t care. F–it, go to Turkey. I have contacts,” the prosecutor told the court.

“The defendant then sat down, but his aggressive behaviour continued.

“His wife was ashamed. His three children were also on-board,
and other crew members were called to assist, but the defendant continued shouting and swearing.

“He was slurring his words, with his voice raised.

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“He shouted at the cabin crew: ‘Do you know who I am?’

“The defendant’s wife went to the food bar and tried to talk to cabin crew, but the defendant pushed his wife away, and shouted at her not to talk to crew.”

He grabbed one flight attendant, called Tommy Merchant, and threatened him with a fight.

‘YOU WILL BE DEAD’

The out-of-control passenger then told cabin crew he would blow up the floor of their hotel.

“The defendant knew the specific hotel, but also the hotel room numbers, and threatened the cabin crew with this,” Mr Kapadia told the court.

“He told Ms Walsh: ‘You will be dead on the floor of your hotel’.

“Iftikhar shouted at Ms Walsh and said: ‘The white sheep sh**ging b***h will be dead. The floor of your hotel will be blown up and it will disappear.

“He told Ms Walsh: ‘You will be dragged by your hair from your room and gang raped and set on fire’.”

His violent rant unfolded in front of his wife and three young children – who were brought to tears.

Iftikhar was arrested at his £900,000 detached home in Iver, Bucks, on March 16, 2024.

‘IT HAS BROKEN ME’

In an impact statement, Ms Walsh said she was forced to take off 14 months and the altercation “changed my life enormously”.

“I can’t quite believe that one passenger has had this much of an impact on my, my job, my career and my life,” she said.

“I am a strong brave, happy stewardess, and loved my job. I am well known within the company.

“But I had to take 14 months off work. 

“I have been flying with Virgin Atlantic for 37 years. I was working when all flights were grounded on 9/11, and I’ve even flown into a warzone. But this incident has broken me.

“But I don’t feel strong enough anymore. I was abused for eight hours and 15 mins. It has broken me. It was a very personal attack.

“I was doing everything in my power to protect passengers and the crew from him. I felt exposed and vulnerable, especially as we were 39,000 feet in the air. There was nowhere for me to go.

“There was one moment where I felt I could not cope. I went into the cockpit and had a meltdown. I said to the captain I don’t know what to do. 

“Even the threat of diverting the plane to Turkey or Baku, Azerbaijan, had no effect.

“I was traumatised by the threat of being gang raped.

“Never in my entire career flying for 37 years have I not been sure what to do.

“I have had the best career in the world for 37 years. But he has taken that away from me.”

He told Ms Walsh: ‘You will be dead on the floor of your hotel’

Prosecutor Abdul Kapadia

Iftikhar, of Iver, Bucks, admitted making threats to kill and racially aggravated harassment, in relation to Ms Walsh.

He was cleared of assault by beating and threats to kill in relation to Mr Merchant.

Ben Walker-Nolan, defending, said Iftikhar was suffering from “amnesia blood loss” at the time.

Mr Walker-Nolan added: “Although there were over 100 incidents over the course of eight hours, the most serious, including threats to kill, were limited.

“The defendant has buried his head in the sand for a long period, and expressed regret.

“He has a long standing drug and alcohol problem which he has not addressed for many years.

“He is a successful businessman who employs a lot of people.”

THUG JAILED

Iftikhar has six previous convictions arising from 15 offences, including common assault in 2004 and drink driving in 2008 and failing to stop and possession of cannabis in 2021.

Judge Ms Recorder Annabel Darlow KC said: “Your threats to kill were made in the presence of children, specifically your three young children. 

“These were threats made with significant violence. 

“Your children had to be comforted by cabin crew staff while you made those threats.

“Ms Walsh has given up a job which she has loved for 14 months, but thankfully has now returned to work.

“This was a sustained incident which involved repeated racist abuse to Ms Walsh.

“You have a lengthy and appalling record of misconduct. You have not addressed the underlying cause of this for many years, that is your drug and alcohol problem.

“Given your lifestyle and your ability to earn money, your harm and risk has not moved.

“This was an appalling incident which has caused long lasting and devastating consequences.”

Iftikhar cried in the dock as he was jailed for 15 months.

His LinkedIn profile stated that he was the director and founder of recruitment firm Staffing Match.

Virgin Atlantic was contacted for comment.

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A TEEN boy died “in terror” after his dad crashed on a motorway while high on cocaine.

Daniel Burba, 31, has been advised by doctors not to drive when got behind the wheel of his wife’s van with 14-year-old Ryan Morgan in the passenger seat.

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The dad had been diagnosed with epilepsy just weeks before the horror which was made worse by the use of illegal drugs.

Despite this, Burba was four-times the limit for cocaine and its derivative benzoylecgonine – causing him to suffer an epileptic fit.

Ryan had no choice but to try to gain control of the van before it swerved off the M6 near Lancaster and hit a tree.

The teen was tragically pronounced dead at the scene after suffering head injuries.

Burba, who also only had a provisional licence, was taken to hospital with “relatively minor” injuries.

While being treated, a paramedic discovered a small bag of cocaine in the dad’s wallet.

Burba has now been jailed for ten years after he pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and driving without a licence or insurance.

In a victim impact statement, Ryan’s mum said her heart has been broken and told how she has been unable to grieve properly because she fears once she starts, she won’t be able to stop.

She continued: “I feel that no amount of time Daniel will serve will ever be enough for taking Ryan’s life. Not only did he take my boy’s life, he took my boy’s future.

“My boy will never grow and be a father, go to work and follow his dreams or travel. He didn’t even get to finish school. He hasn’t ever had a chance to experience life.

“It’s so unfair because Ryan did have a beautiful heart. He wanted to be a policeman. He would have changed the world. He made it a better place in the short time he was here. He made everyone smile who came into contact with him. He had a smile that lit up the room.

“Daniel has taken all that and more. Daniel has taken a precious son, brother, grandson, nephew, friend and cousin. He had so much to live for.

“The fact that Daniel knew he wasn’t allowed to drive due to his seizures, plus a lack of licence and insurance is just disgusting.”

Preston Crown Court heard the horror unfolded on April 20 as other motorists noticed Burba driving erratically with his hazards on.

He reached speeds of more than 70mph before leaving the carriageway and smashing into a tree.

The court heard the Peugeot Bipper van flipped over due to the force it hit the tree.

Police later discovered Burba had been told in October 2014 by his doctor to stop taking cocaine after he suffered a seizure which lasted up to four minutes.

He was also advised not to drive, with the same warning issued in February when he was admitted to hospital after more fits.

Sentencing, Judge Robert Altham, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, told him: “You knew that cocaine predisposed you to further fits.

“You were not entitled to drive unsupervised and certainly not on the motorway. You should not have behind the wheel at all.”

As well as the jail sentence, Judge Altham disqualified Burba from driving for 14 years and five months.

Sgt Martin Wilcock, Senior Investigating Officer at our Road Policing Unit, said: “No sentence will ever make up for any loss of life, particularly in these tragic circumstances. However, Daniel Burba will have the rest of his life to reflect upon the catastrophic consequences his decision to consume drugs and then get behind the wheel have had. Sadly, his son will not.

“I hope the outcome of this case sends a strong message out to anyone who is considering driving, having been told by a doctor not to. Or anyone who is considering driving, having consumed drugs or alcohol.

“As is so very obvious from this case, you run the risk of taking a life but also ruining many others – including your own.”

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IT was the craziest start to a love affair that survived against the odds for more than 40 years.

Superstar rocker Ozzy Osbourne had been given an envelope stuffed with cash to hand over to Sharon Arden, daughter of his band Black Sabbath’s manager.

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Instead, Ozzy blew the money on cocaine — which he was working his way through when Sharon arrived at his hotel.

Despite being completely off his head, Ozzy, who died on Tuesday age 76, never forgot that first meeting when Sharon asked, “Do you have anything for me?”.

He recalled: “‘No, I don’t think so’, I said, all innocent.

“But it didn’t take Einstein to work out what had happened.

“There was a massive bag of coke on the table next to a ripped-up envelope with ‘Sharon’ written on it in felt-tip pen.

“Sharon gave me a monumental ­bollocking when she saw it, shouting and cursing and telling me I was a f***ing disaster.

‘Drunkest and loudest’

“I guess I won’t be shagging her any time soon, then, I thought.

“But she came back the next day, to find me lying in a puddle of my own p**s, smoking a joint.

“She said, ‘Look, if you want to get your s**t together, we want to manage you’.”

That ill-fated meeting led to an incredible marriage that lasted 33 years — despite Ozzy’s drug and sex addiction and even his attempt to strangle Sharon.

He admitted: “I fell for Sharon so badly, man . . . she saved my life every day.”

In one of his last interviews, Ozzy described the reality TV star and X Factor judge as his “soulmate”.

He said: “Sometimes I love her, sometimes I don’t love her, sometimes I’m angry with her, sometimes I’m crazy about her, sometimes I’m very jealous of her, sometimes I wanna f***ing kill her.

“But through it all, at the end of the day, I love her more than anything in the world.”

As Sharon took over running Ozzy’s professional life, the Brummie lad quickly realised that he had never met a woman like her before.

In his 2009 biography, I Am Ozzy, he revealed: “I’d never come across a girl who was like me.

“Wherever we went, we were always the drunkest and the loudest.

“I learned that when Sharon is on a mission, she’ll throw herself at it, lock, stock and barrel, and not stop fighting until well after the bell’s rung.

“I trusted Sharon like I’d never trusted anyone before on the business side of things.”

 Me and Sharon were bonking all over the place. We couldn’t stop. Some nights Sharon would go out of one door and [first wife] Thelma would come in the other

Sharon

When Sharon was relaunching Ozzy as a solo star with a new album, Blizzard Of Ozz, and a tour following his firing from Black Sabbath in 1979, the star’s private life was falling apart.

He was married to Thelma Riley, had adopted her son Elliot from an earlier marriage and they had two kids of their own, Jessica and Louis.

After months of trying, Ozzy finally bedded Sharon after leaping into her bath at a hotel near Shepperton Studios.

He recalled: “Me and Sharon were bonking all over the place.

“We couldn’t stop.

“Some nights, Sharon would go out of one door and Thelma would come in the other.

“I was knackered all the time, ­having two women on the go.

“I don’t know how those French blokes do it.

“When I was with Sharon, I’d end up calling her ‘Tharon’, which earned me more than a few black eyes.

“I’d never known what it was like to fall in love before I met Sharon.

“We were inseparable.

“I realised that when you’re in love, it’s not just about the messing around in the sack, it’s about how empty you feel when they’re gone. And I couldn’t stand it when Sharon was gone.”

But when he split up with Thelma in 1981, Sharon bore the brunt of Ozzy’s anger.

He said: “I was a wreck.

“I was in love with Sharon, but at the same time I was cut to pieces by ­losing my family.

“I’d get drunk and try to hit her, and she’d throw things at me.

“Wine bottles, gold discs, TVs — you name it, it would all come flying across the room.

“I ain’t proud to admit that a few of my punches reached their target.”

6

But the following year, Ozzy and Sharon married in Hawaii on the way to a gig.

The rocker didn’t make it back to their hotel room after the ­ceremony.

Sharon recalled: “The manager called and said, ‘Your husband is lying in the hall, will you come and get him’ and I said, ‘No I won’t’.”

While Sharon managed Ozzy’s soaring solo career, the couple welcomed their three children Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39.

But she could not curb her husband’s appetite for booze, illegal drugs and prescription pills.

‘Slumped in corridor’

When he got violent, Sharon would take her revenge like the time she took a hammer to all his gold records.

But seven years after their wedding, Ozzy tried to strangle Sharon while high on drugs and Russian vodka, at their 17th Century home in Little Chalfont, Bucks.

The family had gone to their bedrooms after returning from a local Chinese restaurant to celebrate Aimee’s sixth birthday.

Before lunging at Sharon, Ozzy stripped naked and told her: “We’ve had a little talk and it’s clear that you have to die.”

She pressed the panic button, ­alerting the police.

Ozzy woke up in a cell the next morning with no recollection of the attack, to find he had been charged with attempted murder.

Three months later, ahead of his court case, Sharon visited the rehab centre where Ozzy had been sent to dry out.

In his autobiography, Ozzy recalled how she told him: “I’m going to drop the charges.

“I don’t believe you’re capable of attempted murder, Ozzy.

People keep asking, ‘How come you and Sharon have stayed together all this time?’

Ozzy

“You’re a sweet, gentle man.

“But when you get drunk, Ozzy Osbourne disappears and someone else takes over.

“I want that other person to go away.

“I don’t want to see him again.”

But Ozzy instead developed a p­rescription pill addiction.

Sharon almost died from colon ­cancer during the making of their Noughties fly-on-the-wall MTV show, The Osbournes.

While she was still undergoing chemo, the couple retook their vows on New Year’s Eve 2002.

Ozzy revealed: “People keep asking, ‘How come you and Sharon have stayed together all this time?’.

“My answer was the same then as it is now. ‘I’ve never stopped telling my wife that I love her; I’ve never stopped taking her out for dinner; I’ve never stopped surprising her with ­little gifts’.

6

“Unfortunately, I’d never stopped drinking and taking drugs, so the ­ceremony ended much the same as our original wedding — with me slumped in a corridor, p*ssed out of my brains.”

A year later, Ozzy had a near-fatal quad bike accident on their estate that required multiple surgeries and affected his long-term mobility. In the ­aftermath of the crash, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, only going public with the condition in 2020.

Meanwhile, Sharon — who described their life together as “a Shakespeare play” — slipped Ozzy extra sleeping pills in 2016 to extract a confession that he had been having an affair with his hairdresser.

It was also revealed that there were more mistresses.

Devastated, Sharon tried to kill herself but was found by a cleaner.

Jessie Breakwell, who worked as their nanny, said: “Ozzy was obsessed with her.

“They’d giggle and make jokes.

“It was genuine love.”

After Ozzy went to rehab for sex addiction, the couple reconciled and renewed their vows in Las Vegas in 2017.

Sharon admitted: “I love him.

“I can leave if I want, take half of everything and go. I don’t want to.”

6

6

Wild and hilarious Ozzy stories

1. Ozzy once told Sharon: “Don’t cremate me, whatever you do.

“I want to be put in the ground, in a nice garden somewhere, with a tree over my head.

“A crabapple tree, preferably, so the kids can make wine out of me and get pissed out of their heads.

“As for what they’ll put on my headstone, I ain’t under any illusions.

“If I close my eyes, I can already see it:

“Ozzy Osbourne, born 1948

“Died, whenever.

“He bit the head off a bat.”

2. Ozzy decided to stop using acid while recording Black Sabbath album Vol 4.

He said: “I took ten tabs of acid then went for a walk in a field.

“I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour.

“In the end, the horse turned around and told me to f**k off.

“That was it for me.”

3. The rocker began tattooing himself as a teenager while growing up in Birmingham.

He said: “I even put a smiley face on each of my knees to cheer myself up when I was sitting on the bog in the morning.”

Decades later he had ‘thanks’ tattooed on his right palm.

He said: “It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time.

“How many times do you say ‘thanks’ to people during your lifetime?

“Tens of thousands, probably.

“Now all I had to do was raise my right hand.”

4. The Osbournes had a donkey called Sally, who used to sit in the living room with Ozzy and watch Match Of The Day.

5. Former slaughterhouse worker Ozzy claimed to have killed his family’s cats while high.

He recalled: “I was ­taking drugs so much I was a f***ed.

“The final straw came when I shot all our cats.

“We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all.

“My wife found me under the piano in a white suit – a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other.”

6. The Prince of Darkness was interested in the Bible.

He said: “I’ve tried to read it several times.

“But I’ve only ever got as far as the bit about Moses being 720 years old, and I’m like, ‘What were these people smoking back then?’”

7. Ozzy met the late Queen at the Royal Variety Performance.

He recalled: “I was standing next to Cliff Richard.

“She took one look at the two of us, and said, “Oh, so this is what they call variety, is it?” then cracked up laughing.

“I honestly thought Sharon must have slipped some acid into my ­cornflakes that morning.”

8. Ozzy loved putting hidden messages in songs.

He said: “On No Rest For The Wicked, if you play Bloodbath In Paradise backwards, you can clearly hear me saying, ‘Your mother sells whelks in Hull’.”

There are some people who are not phased by the security checks and scanners and brazenly try to smuggle illegal substances through the airport – a number of them have now been nabbed

Thousands of families will be jetting off to and from Manchester Airport for their summer getaways. While most holidaymakers are mindful of the 100ml liquid rule and removing large electrical items from their hand luggage, there are always a few who slip up.

Yet, there are some travellers who seem unfazed by security measures and audaciously attempt to smuggle illegal substances in their luggage. A number of these so-called “tourists” were nabbed by vigilant security teams and police at Manchester Airport.

Among those caught was a pair of friends who claimed their suitcases were brimming with shopping, a woman who flaunted her holiday snaps to staff before being apprehended, and a boxer who accepted an “offer he couldn’t refuse”.

Below is a snapshot of some individuals arrested at Manchester Airport, as highlighted by the Manchester Evening News, though it’s not an exhaustive list.

They claimed they went shopping in New York – their luggage told a different tale

Sophie Bannister, 30, hailing from Withington, and her mate Levi-April Whalley, 31, from Lancashire, appeared to have returned from a fabulous shopping spree in New York, touching down on British turf with suitcases that seemed to overflow with new purchases.

Their suitcases, however, told a starkly different tale. Upon their return to the UK, the pair were caught with over 35kg of cannabis in their baggage.

In April, seated together in the dock, the women clasped hands and wept as the court was informed of their attempt to smuggle the drugs into the country, reports Liverpool Echo.

Both women pleaded guilty to the charge of fraudulent evasion of prohibition. Bannister’s 20-month term was suspended for 18 months, while Whalley was given a 16-month sentence which was also suspended for the same duration. The court heard that both women were susceptible to exploitation due to their personal and financial struggles.

The remorseful friends disclosed to the Mirror the series of events that led them to become entangled in a cannabis smuggling scheme, which seemingly began with a single message on social media.

She flaunted her holiday snaps to staff – then they nicked her

A mum who proudly presented her vacation snaps to officers at Manchester Airport found herself under arrest when they spotted a revealing detail.

Larissa Lins, aged 27, insisted she had travelled to the UK to “research nice places” after transiting through France and Portugal from Brazil. Despite her claims of innocence regarding any illicit activities, the photo gallery she shared with the officials inadvertently revealed her time in France.

While browsing through the images, they came across a snapshot of the “white pellets”. Further investigation revealed that Lins had ingested, concealed, and stashed away a kilogram of narcotics both inside and outside her body.

After admitting to her role in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on importing a class A substance, she was sentenced on October 17 last year. The court informed her that she will “almost inevitably” face deportation back to Brazil after completing 40% of her term.

Boxer behind bars after irresistible offer

A former pugilist and father of two found himself under arrest at Manchester Airport following what he described as “‘an offer he felt he could not refuse”.

Edward Nesbitt, aged 36, was one of two drug mules imprisoned in May, alongside Yoke Woon, subsequent to the seizure of a suitcase crammed with 23 kilos of cannabis at the airport. Manchester Crown Court listened to accounts of how Uber driver Woon arrived with the contraband on a flight from Singapore in March.

He abandoned the suitcase on the luggage belt in Terminal 2, where it was retrieved by Nesbitt, who had landed on a different plane from Amsterdam. Prosecutor Mark Pritchard detailed how Woon, aged 43, touched down at T2 just past 8:30 am on March 4 on a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore, using a Malaysian passport.

Friends admir ‘you’re going to see it’ as luggage scrutinised

Two school friends faced the music after a “naïve and stupid” decision following their three-week revelry in Thailand. Lewis Ellis and James Poutch jetted off in April to experience a festival dubbed as “the world’s biggest water fight”.

Upon their return to Manchester Airport via Abu Dhabi, Ellis, 20, and Poutch, 19, were stopped for a luggage inspection.

Ellis didn’t hesitate to confess to customs officers: “I have cannabis in my bag, I may as well tell you because you’re going to see it.”

The search revealed a staggering 37kg of cannabis stashed in their bags. Both Ellis and Poutch were handed suspended sentences at Manchester Crown Court.

Adolfo Macias, who was recaptured in June after escaping from a prison last year, will appear in a New York state court on Monday.

Ecuadorean gang leader Adolfo Macias Villamar, also known as “Fito”, is set to appear in a federal court in the United States, where he will plead not guilty to international charges of drug and weapons trafficking, his lawyer says.

The Ecuadorean government on Sunday extradited the notorious drug trafficker, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum-security penitentiary, the country’s prison authority said.

Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was serving a 34-year sentence at a prison in Guayaquil for a slew of crimes, including drug trafficking, organised crime, and murder.

The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, the report said. His lawyer told the Reuters news agency that Macias “will plead not guilty” before the Brooklyn federal court on Monday.

Details of the handover to the US government and the extradition were not specified. The US government has yet to issue an official statement following the extradition.

The US Attorney’s Office had filed charges in April against Macias on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling.

The former taxi driver turned crime boss agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the US to face the charges.

He is the first Ecuadorean extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought the approval of moves to boost his war on criminal gangs.

Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

Cult following

Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralise” the gangs. The move has been criticised by human rights organisations.

As a drug lord, Macias cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public.

While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian people” while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches.

Macias’s Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, which is considered the world’s largest cocaine exporter, as well as Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organised Crime Observatory.

His escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including government “wanted” posters offering $1m for information leading to his arrest.

On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the centre of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, “the sooner the better”.

“We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law,” Noboa told CNN at the time.

More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.

The Colombian leader opened a new embassy in Haiti, while talks have been focused on security and the fight against drug trafficking.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has travelled to Haiti for the second time this year in a significant show of support, as spiralling gang violence continues to plague the Caribbean country.

Petro’s visit, which began Friday, has focused on talks on security, commerce, education, agriculture and the fight against drug trafficking, the Colombian government said.

Petro announced the opening of a Colombian embassy in the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

He has also pledged to help Haiti strengthen its security, offering to train Haitian officers. Haitian delegations have visited a state-owned arms manufacturing company in Colombia to learn about its defence capabilities.

The Colombian government shared a brief clip of Petro speaking at the new embassy: “The time has come to truly unite.”

Por fin, tenemos embajada en Haití.

¿Qué fuerzas impedían en la cancillería que hubiera una embajada en el país desde donde salió nuestra independencia?

¿Sería porque nuestra libertad salió fue de los esclavos negros que se liberaron a sí mismos? pic.twitter.com/tpdpmBptCz

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) July 19, 2025

Translation: Finally, we have an embassy in Haiti. What forces in the Foreign Ministry were preventing the establishment of an embassy in the country from which our independence originated? Could it be because our freedom came from the Black slaves who liberated themselves?

Petro landed in Port-au-Prince, where 90 percent of the capital is under gang control. He was accompanied by officials, including Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez.

During his visit, Petro met with Haiti’s Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime and its transitional presidential council, which is under pressure to hold general elections before February 2026.

The officials arrived less than a week after Haitian authorities killed four suspected drug traffickers and confiscated more than 1,000kg (2,300lb) of cocaine off the country’s north coast.

The seizure was unexpectedly large for Haiti’s National Police, which remains understaffed and underfunded as it works with Kenyan police leading a United Nations-backed mission to help quell gang violence.

While most of the violence is centred in Port-au-Prince, gangs have razed and seized control of a growing number of towns in Haiti’s central region.

At least 4,864 people have been killed from October to the end of June across Haiti, with hundreds of others kidnapped, raped and trafficked, according to a recent UN report.

Gang violence has also displaced 1.3 million people in recent years.

Petro previously visited Haiti in late January. Before his visit, Haitian officials invested some $3.8m to more than double the runway at the airport in the city of Jacmel, renovate the town and restore electricity to a population living in the dark for at least three years.

The two countries are additionally strengthening their ties as judges in Haiti continue to interrogate 17 former Colombian soldiers accused in the July 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moise.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” killed thousands of people.

For years, Catholic priest Flaviano Villanueva has gathered evidence of alleged extrajudicial killings.

He exhumed victims’ bodies for forensic examination and protected a key witness who claims he worked as a contract killer for Duterte.

In March 2025, the priest’s persistence paid off when Duterte was arrested and extradited to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.

101 East follows Father Villanueva’s fight for justice for the victims of Duterte’s brutal crackdown.

US president has pushed other countries to crack down on manufacturing and exportation of fentanyl.

United States President Donald Trump has said that China may start sentencing people to death for involvement in the manufacture or distribution of fentanyl, whose trafficking Trump has sought harsh measures to counteract.

Speaking as he signed anti-drug legislation on Wednesday, the US president said that the need to combat fentanyl was one of the reasons for his imposition of tariffs on countries across the world.

“I think we’re going to work it out so that China is going to end up going from that to giving the death penalty to the people that create this fentanyl and send it into our country,” Trump said. “I believe that’s going to happen soon.”

China, which has long imposed severe penalties on people involved with drug distribution, including capital punishment, has been at the centre of Trump’s ire over the opioid that helped fuel an overdose epidemic in the US.

The country raised outrage when it executed four Canadian dual citizens earlier this year for drug-related offences, despite pleas for clemency from the Canadian government.

Experts have questioned whether such penalties will help address the distribution of fentanyl, which China has said is driven largely by demand from people in the US.

Trump has previously linked his tariffs on countries such as Mexico and Canada to fentanyl, although trafficking from the latter into the US is close to nonexistent.

Drug overdoses in the US have been a subject of concern and political debate for years, with the country’s opioid epidemic beginning with the aggressive promotion of painkillers by pharmaceutical companies but later being mostly driven by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

Overdose deaths have started to drop in recent years, giving experts cause for optimism after years of communities being ravaged by opioids. Overdoses over a 12-month period ending in June 2024 dropped by 12 percent compared with the same period the previous year, down from 113,000 to 97,000.

Giuseppe Palermo has been wanted under an Interpol red notice, which has called for his arrest in 196 countries.

Colombian authorities have captured an alleged leader of the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Latin America who is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments and running illegal trafficking routes to Europe.

Police on Friday identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, also known as “Peppe”, an Italian national who was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries.

He was nabbed on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation between Colombian, Italian and British authorities, as well as Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, according to an official report.

Palermo is believed to be part of “one of the most tightly knit cells” of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, said Carlos Fernando Triana, head of the Colombian police.

The ‘Ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful, ruthless and clandestine criminal organisations, has increasingly wielded its influence overseas and is widely accused of importing cocaine into Europe.

The suspect “not only led the purchase of large shipments of cocaine in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, but also controlled the maritime and land routes used to transport the drugs to European markets”, Triana added.

Illegal cocaine production reached 3,708 tonnes in 2023, an increase of nearly 34% from the previous year, driven mainly by the expansion of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia, according to the United Nations.

The global illicit drug trade, including cocaine, is estimated to be worth more than $500bn annually.

Notorious gang leader has agreed to be extradited to the United States to face cocaine and weapons smuggling charges.

Ecuador’s most infamous drug lord has agreed to be extradited to the United States to face cocaine and weapons smuggling charges, a court in the capital Quito has said.

The announcement on Friday is the latest chapter in the dramatic underworld tale of Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, who was recaptured in June after escaping from a maximum security prison 18 months ago in a jailbreak that triggered a bloody wave of gang violence.

Macias, head of the “Los Choneros” gang, is wanted in the US on charges of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.

After Macias vanished from his prison cell in the southwestern port of Guayaquil in January 2024, authorities had been scouring the world for him, offering a $1m reward for information leading to his capture. But it emerged that the country’s most wanted man was hiding out at a family member’s mansion in his hometown.

Ecuadorian security forces recaptured the drug kingpin last month at an underground bunker beneath a marble-walled house in the port city of Manta, some 260km (160 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito.

The former taxi-driver-turned-crime-boss had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for involvement in organised crime, drug trafficking and murder.

In a country plagued by drug-related crime, Los Choneros members responded with violence as the manhunt began after their leader’s escape – using car bombs, holding prison guards hostage and storming a television station during a live broadcast.

President Daniel Noboa’s right-wing government had recently declared, “We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law.”

Macias, dressed in an orange prison uniform, took part in a court hearing Friday via videolink from a high-security prison in Guayaquil.

In response to a judge’s question, he replied, “Yes, I accept (extradition).”

This would make Macias the first Ecuadorian extradited by his country since the measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which Noboa sought the approval of measures to boost his war on criminal gangs.

Ecuador, once a peaceful haven wedged between the world’s two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

These gang wars have largely played out inside the country’s prisons, where Macias wielded immense control. He was the unofficial boss of his Guayaquil prison, where authorities found images glorifying him, weapons and US dollars.

Videos of parties he held in the prison captured fireworks and a mariachi band. In one sequence, he appeared waving, laughing and petting a fighting rooster.

Macias earned a law degree behind bars. By the time he escaped, he was considered a suspect in the assassination of presidential candidate and anticorruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.

Soon after Macias’s prison break, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralize” the gangs.

Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan – the world’s largest cocaine exporter – and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.

More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez plans to change his not guilty plea during a hearing after arrest in 2023.

A son of the infamous Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to plead guilty in a wide-ranging United States drug trafficking case at a court hearing in Chicago.

Court records for Ovidio Guzman Lopez indicate he intends to change his not-guilty plea as part of a deal with federal prosecutors at the hearing on Friday.

If confirmed, it would be the first time one of El Chapo’s sons has struck such an agreement.

Federal prosecutors allege that Ovidio and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who became known locally as Los Chapitos, led a powerful faction of the notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel.

They are accused of masterminding a major fentanyl trafficking operation that funnelled what prosecutors described as a “staggering” amount of the synthetic opioid into the US. The US has suffered a major opioid crisis in the last few decades, which has resulted in large numbers of deaths, addiction, and lawsuits.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is currently serving a life sentence in a US federal prison following a 2019 conviction. After his capture, Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his siblings reportedly took on key leadership roles within the cartel.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested by Mexican authorities in early 2023 and extradited to the US months later. He originally pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges.

His brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and longtime cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada were arrested in Texas in 2024 after arriving on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges.

Their high-profile capture set off a wave of violence across Sinaloa as rival factions scrambled for control, vying for control of routes used to produce and transport narcotics, including fentanyl, that are often destined for the US.

The groups are split between members loyal to the Sinaloa Cartel cofounders, “El Chapo” Guzman and Zambada.

Another 36 workers remain in hospital with burns and other injuries after the blast and fire at the Sigachi factory.

At least 36 people have been confirmed dead after a powerful explosion triggered a fire at a pharmaceutical factory in the southern Indian state of Telangana.

“The condition of the bodies is such that we’ve had to deploy a specialised medical team to carry out DNA tests,” said Health and Medical Cabinet Minister of Telangana Damodar Raja Narasimha on Tuesday.

A government panel has been formed to investigate the cause of the disaster.

The blast, which erupted on Monday afternoon at a facility run by Sigachi Industries, took place in the plant’s spray dryer unit – a section used to convert raw materials into powder for drug manufacturing. The factory is located roughly 50km (31 miles) from Hyderabad, the state capital.

Authorities recovered 34 bodies from the debris, while two more workers succumbed to injuries in hospital, according to Telangana’s fire services director, GV Narayana Rao.

“The entire structure has collapsed. The fire is under control and we’re continuing to clear the rubble in case more people are trapped,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

Twenty-five of the deceased are yet to be identified, a district administrative official, P Pravinya, said.

About 36 workers remain in hospital with burns and other injuries. Police officials said that more than 140 people were working in the plant when the incident occurred.

Local residents reported hearing the blast from several kilometres away.

The incident has raised new concerns about industrial safety in India’s booming pharmaceutical sector. Despite the country’s reputation as a global supplier of low-cost medicines and vaccines, fatal accidents at drug manufacturing units are not rare, particularly in facilities handling chemicals or solvents.

Sigachi Industries, which has its headquarters in India, produces active pharmaceutical ingredients and nutrient blends, and operates manufacturing plants across the country. It also runs subsidiaries in the United Arab Emirates and the United States, according to its website.

Officials say rescue and recovery efforts will continue until the entire site has been cleared. The factory’s operations have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

Incident is latest in months of intense violence between rival drug cartel members.

Twenty bodies, several of them decapitated, have been found on a highway bridge in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, Mexican authorities say, as rival drug cartel factions fight one another in the area.

The Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office reported a grisly scene on Monday: Four headless corpses were found on a roadside, 16 bodies were discovered inside an abandoned vehicle near the state capital, Culiacan, and five human heads were found inside a bag.

Authorities said the bodies were left with a note, apparently from one of the cartel factions – though the note’s contents were not immediately disclosed.

Feliciano Castro, the Sinaloa government spokesperson, condemned the killings and said authorities needed to examine their strategy for tackling organised crime with the “magnitude” of the violence seen.

“Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa,” Castro said. Most in the state, however, say authorities have lost control.

Sinaloa has been gripped by months of violence fuelled by rival drug traffickers vying for control of routes used to produce and transport narcotics, including fentanyl, that are often destined for the United States.

The groups are split between members loyal to Sinaloa Cartel co-founders Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The violence peaked after the arrest in July 2024 of Zambada, who is on trial in the US. The US announced it had arrested 76-year-old Zambada and 38-year-old Joaquin Guzman Lopez, “El Chapo” Guzman’s son, at an airport near El Paso, Texas.

Zambada accused Guzman Lopez of kidnapping him in Mexico and flying him to the US in a private plane against his will.

“El Chapo” has been serving a life sentence in the US for drug trafficking since 2019.

Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty last July to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.

In September, Zambada pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, murder and other charges in a New York court.

The violence in Sinaloa has killed more than 1,200 people, according to official figures.

Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed about 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.

United Nations report says global cocaine trade thriving, with 25 million users around the world in 2023.

Border authorities in United Kingdom have seized cocaine with a street value of $132m from a ship arriving from Panama.

Border Force Maritime director Charlie Eastaugh said on Saturday that the massive haul of 2.4 tonnes of the drug seized at the London Gateway port near the capital was “one of the largest of its kind”.

UK’s Home Office confirmed that the haul, found under containers on a ship arriving from Panama, was the sixth-largest cocaine seizure on record.

Specialist officers had detected the shipment earlier this month after carrying out an intelligence-led operation, moving 37 large containers to get at the stash.

The UK is one of Europe’s biggest markets for cocaine, according to the National Crime Agency. The UK government says cocaine-related deaths in England and Wales rose by 31 percent between 2022 and 2023.

On Thursday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the cocaine trade went from strength to strength in 2023, the latest year for which comprehensive data is available.

The Vienna-based agency’s annual World Drug Report showed that cocaine was the world’s “fastest-growing illicit drug market”, with Colombian production surging as demand for the drug expands in Europe and North and South America.

Around the globe, the estimated number of cocaine users also kept growing, reaching 25 million people in 2023, up from 17 million 10 years earlier, the UNODC said.