Peru cocaine output grows
Pastor Dale Morgan
Peru cocaine output grows *
21 Jan 2007 16:22:19 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Andrei Khalip
LIMA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Peru has reduced and stabilized illegal coca
leaf planting areas over the past few years, but yields from some farms
have doubled and cocaine output soared due to a lack of funds to fight
the lucrative business.
Peruvian Interior Minister Pilar Mazzetti told Reuters in an interview
over the weekend local drug traffickers in the world's second-biggest
coca leaf producer have switched to pure cocaine production from raw
coca paste.
"Things have changed, evolved. Four, five years ago they were producing
more paste, but now we are discovering more laboratories in the growing
areas and more and more cocaine hydrochloride," she said. "It used to be
80 percent paste, now it's 80 percent cocaine, and very high quality
cocaine."
The density of coca plants has nearly doubled in some places and plants
yield more cocaine alkaloid.
"We are managing to maintain the number of hectares under coca leaf
stable, but the density and quality are definitely improving -- they use
chemical fertilizers, new types of seeds and we cannot rule out genetic
modifications," she said.
The authorities estimate there are around 121,000 acres (49,000
hectares) planted with coca, producing some 110,000 tonnes of raw paste,
which translates into 36,700 tonnes of cocaine per year, but Mazzetti
said some experts put paste output from the same area as high as 180,000
tonnes or 60,000 tonnes of cocaine.
The area -- now slightly bigger than San Jose in California or Austrian
capital Vienna -- has halved from around 247,000 acres (100,000
hectares) 10 years ago, "but then they couldn't even dream about all
this cocaine output, it was all paste," Mazzetti said.
The legal industry, which serves medicinal, beverage and native rituals
purposes, consumes just 250 tonnes of paste.
Peru's law enforcement bodies last year eradicated some 24,700 acres
(10,000 hectares) of coca leaf plants and another 7400 acres (3,000
hectares) were swapped for other crops under voluntary eradication programs.
MORE INTERNATIONAL HELP URGED
Washington provided $54 million last year under its anti-drug
cooperation treaty with Peru, a drop in the ocean compared to over $3
billion spent in Colombia since 2000.
"The United States estimates that only 20 percent of their cocaine comes
from Peru, and Colombia largely accounts for the rest, so their aid is
much reduced in our case. ... We are trying hard to find financing from
other sources, working closely with the European Union where the drug is
a growing problem."
Peru's own robust economic growth over the past few years is finally
contributing to an increase in the anti-drugs budget this year, but
Mazzetti said it would still reach only about half the $200 million
needed for eradication and interception.
The government is also trying to modify laws to be able to charge
illegal producers with forming criminal groups, hiring people for
trafficking and with money-laundering. It also needs to control chemical
substances used to produce drugs.
About 80 percent of Peruvian cocaine is exported in large lots by sea --
often hidden in fresh or canned fruit -- to Panama and then Europe,
Africa or to Mexico and the United States. That is another recent trend
after Peru started closely monitoring its airspace several years ago.
In the coca growing areas 2.2 lbs (1 kg) of cocaine cost $1,200, which
goes up to $1,800 in Lima and then leaps to $25,000 in the United States
and $54,000 in Europe. The paste can be smoked and is left for local
consumption in Peru.
U.S. anti-drug efforts in Colombia and Mexico have also made drug
cartels look for other production bases, and some are now working with
Peruvian growers and traffickers. The latter also get protection from
the remnants of Maoist rebels from the Shining Path group, which still
operates in the jungle.
"These terrorists have learned that giving protection to growers and
traffickers means good money," she said. Otherwise, coca growing areas
are very little like Hollywood movies where thugs armed with machine
guns guard the plantations.
"It's about poor peasants who grow what they grow because often nothing
else grows there. ... That's why we don't use herbicides or fungus on
the crops and rip them out manually."
When coca leaf planting areas are close to villages and clearly sustain
them, the authorities often have to ignore them as eradication can
provoke social unrest.