Coca/Cocaine, Law & Justice

Police Confiscate 307 Kgs of Cocaine Hydrochloride in Tri-Border Area

Peruvian police confiscated more than 300 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride that was being smuggled out of Peru on a north jungle river located in the tri-border area with Brazil and Colombia.

According to daily El Comercio, the 279 packages containing 307 kilograms of the pure cocaine were seized on the Ucayali river in Loreto region.

Authorities found the shipment hidden in a boat under bananas and was being transported by three people, including a 16-year-old, the report said.

Police say the cocaine was produced in the Huanuco and Tingo Maria and was being transported to Brazil.  The cocaine was packed in small packages in different color wrappers, which indicates that the shipment was a collection from different cocaine producers in the area.

Authorities say that the shipment is valued at about $1.5 million in Brazil and around $5 million in the United States and even more in Europe, which could be its final destination.

Peru is the world’s biggest producer of the coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine. The biggest coca producing regions are the Upper Huallaga Valley in Huanuco and the zone known as the Apurimac and Ene river valleys, or VRAE, in central Peru.

However, the UN says there has been a 90 percent increase in coca leaf production in the tri-border region, particularly in the province of Ramon Castilla. The UN says that it has seen an increase in drug trafficking between Brazil, Colombia and Peru in recent years.

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