U.S. State Department offers reward for Shining Path leaders

The United States Department of State has placed the leaders of two Shining Path factions on its narcotics rewards program, which offers compensation of $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the targets. The announcement comes only weeks after a UN Office on Drug Control and Crime (UNODC) report, questioned by [...]

Peruvian authorities question UN data on coca leaf production

Peruvian officials are questioning recently released data from a United Nations agency that says the Andean nation has overtaken Colombia as the world’s top coca leaf producer, state news agency Andina reported. In 2009, Peru produced 119,000 tonnes of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine, representing about 45.4 percent of the Andean region’s [...]

Defense Minister: New equipment will allow military to defeat drug traffickers in VRAE

Peru’s purchase of modern military equipment will allow the country’s Armed Forces to defeat drug traffickers in the isolated coca growing areas that cover the Apurímac and Ene river valley’s, known as the VRAE, Defense Minister Rafael Rey told state news agency Andina. Rey said that for a long time the armed forces had older [...]

Company believes its Nazca plane was hijacked by drug traffickers

The company that owns a $2 million charter plane that went missing on Thursday during a flight over Peru’s famous Nazca lines believe it was robbed by drug traffickers, daily El Comercio reported. “It is 99 percent likely that the disappearance of the plane is a hijacking and behind it [are drug traffickers],” representative Jorge [...]

Devida: Peru to spend $32 million in 2010 on counternarcotics programs

Peru’s government will spend 93 million soles, about $32 million, in 2010 to combat drug trafficking, according to the head of the anti-drug agency Devida, Rómulo Pizarro. Pizarro said last week that 40 million soles, or $14 million, will be used to finance sustainable development projects in the coca growing areas that cover the Apurímac [...]

Coca cultivation drops dramatically in San Martín region

A study at Peru’s Catholic University found the illicit cultivation of coca leaf has fallen off dramatically in the Peruvian department of San Martín, state news agency Andina reported. Jaime García of the University’s Institute for International Studies said that more than 30,000 hectares were used to grow coca – the raw material used to [...]

Anti-drug agency to set up checkpoints to intercept drug processing chemicals

Peru’s anti-drug agency, Devida, said Thursday it will establish checkpoints by July to intercept and limit the flow of cocaine processing chemicals into the country’s main drug producing regions. The president of Devida, Rómulo Pizarro, said 25 tons of toxic chemicals used to manufacture cocaine from coca plants enter Peru’s Upper Huallaga region and the [...]

Foncodes invests $4.2 million in VRAE development projects in 2009

Peru’s state development cooperation fund, Foncodes, said Tuesday it invested more than 12 million soles, about $4.2 million dollars, last year in 55 social projects located in the area that covers the Apurímac and Ene river valley’s, known as the VRAE. The area includes 31 districts in the departments of Ayacucho, Junin, Huancavelica and Cusco, [...]

One soldier killed and another wounded during attack on military base

Peru’s Joint Command of the Armed Forces says one soldier was killed and another wounded when Shining Path guerrillas attacked a military counter-terrorist base Friday morning in the country’s isolated Apurímac and Ene River Valleys, or VRAE. According to Radio Programas Peru, the rebel group used long range weapons to attack the Bajo Somabeni base [...]

European Union to help Peru with “war on drugs” as of 2010

As of 2010, the European Union will help Peru with its “war on drugs” by funding alternative crops and reforestation projects as well as by providing police training,  according to the President of Peru’s National Commission for the Development of Life without Drugs, or Devida.

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