Peru’s National Police said Monday that it seized almost 350 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride in the country’s central jungle.
The Interior Ministry said that officers from Peru’s anti-drug agency, known as Dirandro, made the bust close to the city of Oxapampa, in the Pasco region. The drugs were found on a small plane of Bolivian origin that was to transport the illicit cargo out of Peru via a clandestine jungle runway.
The statement said that the drug traffickers had a brief fire fight with the police officers before fleeing into the jungle.
The Interior Ministry called the confiscation a “hard hit against illicit international drug trafficking.”
The Oxapampa-Chanchamayo area, within the broader basin of the Tigre and Chanchamayo rivers, is an important producer of coffee, fruits, and lumber, but coca crops have increased in the hilly and dense vegetation inland from the towns.
According to the U.S. government, Peru is the world’s top producer of cocaine. The country has seen its production of the drug increase over the past several years as production declines in neighboring Colombia, also a major producer of cocaine.
