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.

Congresswoman Nancy Obregón’s former assistant arrested for cocaine possession

Congresswoman Nancy Obregón’s former assistant, Max Edmundo Caller Váldez, was busted for cocaine possession last Friday, and police suspect he is tied to a Mexican drug cartel, daily El Comercio reported. Caller, 42, who worked for Obregón from 2006 to 2007, was arrested in Lima’s district of Los Olivos, as he and two other accomplices [...]

Devida: 80 percent of Peru-produced drugs are shipped abroad via its seaports

Approximately 80 percent of drugs produced in Peru are shipped abroad via the Andean country’s Chimbote, Salaverry and Paita ports, said Rómulo Pizarro, President of Peru’s National Commission for the Development of Life without Drugs, or Devida. According to Pizarro, drug traffickers have turned to the country’s seaports because security and drug seizures have increased [...]

Peru police bag haul of cocaine in Puno, drugs were camouflaged in coffee shipment

Peru police seized over 19 kilos of high-quality cocaine stashed among a truckload of coffee bags in the southern highland department of Puno, state news agency Andina reported Friday. Police arrested Cristóbal Coaquira Quispe, 33, Juan Mamani Condori, 42, and Regina Quispe Coaquira, 30. The three individuals were travelling with a 9-year child aboard a [...]

Devida: drug trafficking is contributing to deforestation and contaminating rivers in Peru’s Amazon region

More than 15 million liters of toxic chemicals used in the processing of coca and production of coca paste and cocaine are dumped into the Amazon’s rivers every year, reported Peru’s National Commission for the Development of Life without Drugs, or Devida on Thursday. “The perverse business of drug trafficking has no consideration for the [...]

13 Peru soldiers killed in guerrilla ambush led by former teacher

One of the deadliest terrorist operations in years — suspected to have been planned and staged by a former teacher turned guerrilla — has left 13 soldiers dead in Peru’s remote Apurimac and Ene River Valleys, or VRAE, said Defense Minister Ántero Flores Áraoz. “The attack carried out with dynamite and grenades occurred on Thursday, [...]

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