Police seize 440 pounds of cocaine in Peru port

Police have seized 200 kilograms, about 440 pounds, of cocaine in the port city of Callao in the largest cocaine seizure in Peru so far this year. The cocaine was hidden in a crate among replicas of Inca ceramics aboard the Elqui, which is owned by the Chilean CSAV shipping company, the largest in Latin America, [...]

Police begin investigation into finances of drug trafficking enterprise

The head of Peru’s anti-narcotics unit, General Miguel Hidalgo, announced that they will begin preliminary investigations into 124 companies and some 77 people suspected of money laundering. The investigation surrounds the Sánchez Paredes family, which is suspected of using the companies to hide decades-old profits from drug trafficking. According to Agencia Andina, the investigations will include the [...]

Second police chief arrested for drug trafficking in Ayacucho

A second police chief in Peru’s southern Ayacucho Department has been arrested for drug trafficking in less than two weeks. Captain Carlos Izaguirre, 46, from the small town of Quinua, in Huamanga province, was arrested Jan.24 with officer Ernesto Ramos, 41, for allegedly reselling cocaine that had been confiscated in their jurisdiction, according to daily La República. [...]

Family killed for halting coca production

A family of coca growers who had replaced their illicit yield for legal alternative crops was brutally executed Sunday morning in Peru’s eastern jungle province of Padre Abad, in Ucayali Department. The mayor of a local community told Radio Programas radio the crime was in retaliation for the family’s support of a State program that [...]

Peruvians question attorney general’s stance on jailed cocaine baron

A letter obtained by daily Peru. 21 has raised further questions about Attorney General Adelaida Bolívar’s insistence on transferring one of her prosecutors back to a jungle city post where her life would reportedly be at risk from Peru’s jailed cocaine kingpin Fernando Zevallos. According to the daily, Zevallos sent Bolívar a seven-page letter from [...]

Peruvian municipal police chief arrested for drug trafficking

The police chief from the city of La Mar, capital of San Miguel province in Ayacucho department, was arrested Sunday night after he was allegedly caught transporting 25 kilograms, or 55 pounds, of cocaine paste. According to daily La República, Captain Pedro Guzmán Ayma had wrapped the paste in 59 packages and hid it in [...]

Peru anti-drug agency: 63.5 percent of coca growers acknowledge crop fuels illegal cocaine production

A survey conducted by the National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs, Devida, and the Lima-based Calandria Institute, shows that a majority of people in four of Peru’s coca growing departments acknowledge that the leaf’s primary function is to fuel the cocaine trade. The survey was conducted in December 2007 in the Ayacucho, Huanuco, [...]

Action For Children: Peru children used for drug trafficking

Peru children are increasingly used by organized crime networks for drug trafficking, says a Lima-based child’s rights organization. The coordinator of Action for Children, María Pía Hermosa, told daily El Comercio that efforts by State authorities to eradicate child exploitation have largely failed. State authorities “have told me about the frustration that exists among officials [...]

Peru police seize 1,760 pounds of coca leaves

Peru police have reportedly seized 800 kilograms, or about 1,760 pounds, of coca leaves in La Convención province, in Cusco department. According to Agencia Andina, the leaves were confiscated during operations along the highway between Cusco and Quillabamba between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26. Police allegedly found the leaves hidden among luggage and crates of [...]

Gunmen ambush Peru police on remote Andean road

Peru police have begun a search for gunmen who ambushed a police patrol this morning. About 20 to 30 people armed with grenades and machine guns ambushed the patrol in Huanta province, in Ayacucho Department, killing officers Alberto Quispe Argumedo and Julio César Solano Cipriano and injuring officer Elías Pahuacho Córdova. The director of the [...]

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