In less than five months, the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (Felcn) seized 81 planes that operated the drug airlift and has already doubled the amount of those confiscations made in 2021. In addition, in So far this year, 24 clandestine tracks have been cancelled, but another 300 have been detected.
This complex scenario has led the national authorities to request “a more active participation” of the government of Peru to annul the air corridoreitherbut also the land and river traffic that has intensified this year, the first with greater normality after the restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic that is still active.
The Vice Minister of Social Defense, Jaime Mamani, revealed that after several coordination meetings with the Peruvian authorities began the operation “Friendship of Herradura” which will run until the end of the month. He anticipated that a joint report will be released and that the operations include air patrols.
On Wednesday, May 18, “simultaneous operations have begun with the neighboring country of Peru; by air, land and lake. Also in Lake Titicaca, which is a sector that is used by criminal organizations that bring drugs from Peru to our territory. to then continue its route to other countries, such as Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay,” Mamani told EL DEBER.
Authorities from Bolivia and Peru met at the end of February in Puno to agree on a joint plan, but with special emphasis on drug trafficking that originates in the extensive region of the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem) rivers. Coca is produced in that area and it has been hit in recent years by remnants of the Shining Path terrorist group, that in the decade of the 80s it carried out an internal war that left nearly 70,000 Peruvian citizens dead.
Since February, cocaine trafficking, both base paste and hydrochloride, has increased. Drug traffickers are looking for new routes to reach Brazil, including through rivers. An anti-drug police officer explained to EL DEBER that in the last two months “He has shared information with Peru so that they can join in a more active and committed way, because,” he said, “this problem is growing.”
Deputy Minister Mamani confirmed the version. “We understand that no country in an isolated or individual way can deal with drug trafficking. For this reason, we are promoting meetings of mixed commissions with neighboring nations, fundamentally, to dismantle the airlift that harms us so much and generates a bad image for our country,” he stated.
The drug that leaves Peru or through the national territory is destined for countries in Europe. A report by Cuarto Poder, a Peruvian television program, put the number of daily flights at 10, a figure that has not been confirmed in the country.
Didander’s report the neighboring country’s anti-drug agency established that there are “envoys” of the feared First Command of the Capital (PCC) of Brazil that supervises the transport of the drug to Brazilian territory.
This flow was also confirmed in a Europol report on the operations carried out in the region. The Government required these reports officially. But, European authorities have already explained that between 2020 and 2021 there was an “unprecedented” increase” of seizures of cocaine from Bolivia and Peru. This data is recorded in the world report presented in March by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an advisory body of the United Nations Organization that is based on the 1961 Convention.
This is the international instrument that regulates the obligations of States in the global fight against illicit drugs.
According to the INCB report, air and sea routes for drug trafficking have become the preferred alternatives to circumvent restrictions on land travel. “LTraffickers have increasingly resorted to the use of small planes to transport cocaine between Bolivia to Brazil, Paraguay and Peru”points out the report presented at the United Nations headquarters in Vienna.
The advisory body “It has also observed the use of private aircraft to transport drugs within the region and towards Europe”. In addition, it indicates that “the Paraguay-Paraná river system, formed by 3,400 uninterrupted kilometers of rivers that connect Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay with the Atlantic Ocean, “seems to have consolidated as a gateway for the transport of manufactured cocaine in Bolivia and Peru to the international drug markets through ports located in Brazil and Paraguay”.
The drug airlift was able to start operating about 15 years ago and led Peru to approve a rule to shoot down planes. In 2016, Bolivia bought 13 radars from the French company Thales Air Systems for $216 million. The teams, which should be part of a system of “comprehensive control”, they are not active yet.
“We are in managementit is for them to start operating”, explained Mamani, but without specifying the reasons why these radars are not workingeither. Of course, he pointed out that the Felcn opted for aerial patrols with the FAB. “It is very important to have the logistical means and we, as a Government, are carrying out patrols with the Cesna planes. in order to identify clandestine clues. An aerial patrol is intensifying in the Amazon”, remarked the deputy minister.
He revealed that in a short time the Police will receive five drones “to strengthen these patrols.”
The General of the FuAir Force Henry Gemio reported, in a statement, that the work for the installation of the radars was inspected, but from the Airspace Security and Defense Command that is in Cochabamba, within the framework of Law 521. The Police asked to adjust that norm so that it is part of air control operations, but the modification has not yet reached the Legislative Assembly.
In less than five months, the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (Felcn) seized 81 planes that operated the drug airlift and has already doubled the amount of those confiscations made in 2021. In addition, in So far this year, 24 clandestine tracks have been cancelled, but another 300 have been detected.
This complex scenario has led the national authorities to request “a more active participation” of the government of Peru to annul the air corridoreitherbut also the land and river traffic that has intensified this year, the first with greater normality after the restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic that is still active.
The Vice Minister of Social Defense, Jaime Mamani, revealed that after several coordination meetings with the Peruvian authorities began the operation “Friendship of Herradura” which will run until the end of the month. He anticipated that a joint report will be released and that the operations include air patrols.
On Wednesday, May 18, “simultaneous operations have begun with the neighboring country of Peru; by air, land and lake. Also in Lake Titicaca, which is a sector that is used by criminal organizations that bring drugs from Peru to our territory. to then continue its route to other countries, such as Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay,” Mamani told EL DEBER.
Authorities from Bolivia and Peru met at the end of February in Puno to agree on a joint plan, but with special emphasis on drug trafficking that originates in the extensive region of the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem) rivers. Coca is produced in that area and it has been hit in recent years by remnants of the Shining Path terrorist group, that in the decade of the 80s it carried out an internal war that left nearly 70,000 Peruvian citizens dead.
Since February, cocaine trafficking, both base paste and hydrochloride, has increased. Drug traffickers are looking for new routes to reach Brazil, including through rivers. An anti-drug police officer explained to EL DEBER that in the last two months “He has shared information with Peru so that they can join in a more active and committed way, because,” he said, “this problem is growing.”
Deputy Minister Mamani confirmed the version. “We understand that no country in an isolated or individual way can deal with drug trafficking. For this reason, we are promoting meetings of mixed commissions with neighboring nations, fundamentally, to dismantle the airlift that harms us so much and generates a bad image for our country,” he stated.
The drug that leaves Peru or through the national territory is destined for countries in Europe. A report by Cuarto Poder, a Peruvian television program, put the number of daily flights at 10, a figure that has not been confirmed in the country.
Didander’s report the neighboring country’s anti-drug agency established that there are “envoys” of the feared First Command of the Capital (PCC) of Brazil that supervises the transport of the drug to Brazilian territory.
This flow was also confirmed in a Europol report on the operations carried out in the region. The Government required these reports officially. But, European authorities have already explained that between 2020 and 2021 there was an “unprecedented” increase” of seizures of cocaine from Bolivia and Peru. This data is recorded in the world report presented in March by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an advisory body of the United Nations Organization that is based on the 1961 Convention.
This is the international instrument that regulates the obligations of States in the global fight against illicit drugs.
According to the INCB report, air and sea routes for drug trafficking have become the preferred alternatives to circumvent restrictions on land travel. “LTraffickers have increasingly resorted to the use of small planes to transport cocaine between Bolivia to Brazil, Paraguay and Peru”points out the report presented at the United Nations headquarters in Vienna.
The advisory body “It has also observed the use of private aircraft to transport drugs within the region and towards Europe”. In addition, it indicates that “the Paraguay-Paraná river system, formed by 3,400 uninterrupted kilometers of rivers that connect Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay with the Atlantic Ocean, “seems to have consolidated as a gateway for the transport of manufactured cocaine in Bolivia and Peru to the international drug markets through ports located in Brazil and Paraguay”.
The drug airlift was able to start operating about 15 years ago and led Peru to approve a rule to shoot down planes. In 2016, Bolivia bought 13 radars from the French company Thales Air Systems for $216 million. The teams, which should be part of a system of “comprehensive control”, they are not active yet.
“We are in managementit is for them to start operating”, explained Mamani, but without specifying the reasons why these radars are not workingeither. Of course, he pointed out that the Felcn opted for aerial patrols with the FAB. “It is very important to have the logistical means and we, as a Government, are carrying out patrols with the Cesna planes. in order to identify clandestine clues. An aerial patrol is intensifying in the Amazon”, remarked the deputy minister.
He revealed that in a short time the Police will receive five drones “to strengthen these patrols.”
The General of the FuAir Force Henry Gemio reported, in a statement, that the work for the installation of the radars was inspected, but from the Airspace Security and Defense Command that is in Cochabamba, within the framework of Law 521. The Police asked to adjust that norm so that it is part of air control operations, but the modification has not yet reached the Legislative Assembly.
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