MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2023) Colombian law enforcement agencies have seized record 1,100 tonnes of cocaine over the past 12 months, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Monday.
"Since the beginning of this government, we have targeted the largest links in the drug trafficking chain, seized 1,100 tonnes of cocaine and increased the number of destroyed drug labs by 16% compared with the previous period," Petro said during a speech on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of his coming to power, which was broadcast on social media by his office.
Colombian law enforcement agencies seized 573 tonnes of cocaine in 2023 alone, which is a historic high year-on-year, the president said, adding that 290 operations against organized crime groups were carried out in Colombia within 12 months, during which over 9,000 people were arrested.
Columbia is the world's largest cocaine producer and exporter, part of the so called "Andean triangle" comprising Columbia, Peru and Bolivia, the countries where over 90% of the world coca plantations are located. Smaller amounts of coca plant also grow in Panama, Ecuador, southwestern Venezuela and northeastern Brazil. Hundreds of tonnes of cocaine are shipped annually from South America to the United States, the largest and most solvent market for narcotic drugs on the continent.
In September 2022, Petro said his government will make every effort to convince the coca planters to replace it with other profitable crops, as existing counter-drug policy failed and needed changing, by means including fight against beneficiaries and strengthening intelligence.
