Colombia leads the ranking of largest cocaine seizures in Latin America

The cocaine production and trafficking It remains a problem that seems to have had no real solution, despite being a very long-standing scourge for Latin America and the Caribbeanthe region where most of this substance is produced worldwide.

In 2023 alone, cocaine production reached record levels and Colombia is no exception. At the end of last year, according to figures from the National Police, The country had 246,000 hectares dedicated to coca leaf cultivationan essential input for the production of cocaine.

(Read: These are Venezuela’s most wanted criminals: some are believed to be in Colombia).

“While coca cultivation has grown exponentially in Colombia, the other producing countries, Peru and Bolivia, have also seen increases. What is worrying in these two nations is how political chaos is pushing counternarcotics strategies further and further down the list of government priorities.“, Explain InSight Crime, a foundation specializing in the study of organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean.

(We recommend: Analysis: How much will drug trafficking represent in the Colombian economy in 2024?).

Faced with this, Colombia and other countries in the region have dedicated themselves to carrying out practices to reduce the trafficking of this narcotic to markets such as Europe, Asia and North Americabeing the seizure one of the most used practices.

Colombia leads the ranking of seizures

InSight Crime quantitatively tracked the amount of cocaine seized in each Latin American country during 2023 (except Mexico and Chile).

(Can read: The opposition’s harsh response to Petro’s speech at the opening of Congress).

In this case, Colombia, the main producer of this alkaloid for intranasal consumption, It also leads the ranking of countries with the most tons seized in 2023with 739.5 tons of cocaineaccording to figures from the aforementioned organization.

Cocaine seized.

Anti-Narcotics Police. EL TIEMPO Archive

Further down, and by a long way, is Ecuadorwhich in that year managed to seize 195.4 tons, while other neighboring nations, such as Panama and Brazilseized 95.7 and 72.3 tons of cocaine, respectively. These countries, bordering Colombia, They are key transit points in traffic to other latitudes.

(Besides: Colombia wins multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the United States over mafia mega-property).

Completing the top 10 are, in order, Venezuela (43.7 million tons), Bolivia (32.9 million tons), Peru (21.5 million tons), Dominican Republic (18 million tons) and Argentina (7.3 million tons).

BRIEFCASE