Record breaking Amounts of Cocaine Captured in Peru

Steven Petrov
The Paw Print

After a successful police operation this past week, the record breaking 7.6 tons, over $300 million worth, of cocaine was seized by Peru’s authorities. The Peru’s government announced that the drugs were most likely manufactured by a Mexican cartel that works closely with Peru’s mafia, reported by France Press. The Minister of the Interior of Peru has proudly stated that the government forces have never seized a larger quantity of drugs. This is a great step taken by Peru’s government towards the fight with the drug cartels occupying the majority of Central America as well as some parts of Latin America.
The drug lords were smart enough to hide the cocaine inside a coal shipment for overseas. However, they failed to acknowledge the fact that Peru doesn’t export coals to Spain and Belgium, which were the two end destinations for the cocaine.
This made the police suspicious enough to start a thorough investigation 6 weeks ago. The joint operation between Peru’s police and the US DEA took place on Tuesday, but the whole process of getting the drugs out of the coals took an additional 3 days and the seize of the deal was clear on Friday.
It has been confirmed by the authorities that the cocaine definitely comes from a Mexican cartel, however no names were mentioned. During the operation a total of 9 people were captured. This included seven Peruvians and two Mexicans who were most likely serving as the link between the Mexican drug cartel and Peru’s mafia.
The drug cartels in the Western hemisphere have increased their numbers but have also become stronger, richer, and more dangerous in the last decade. Some of the major centers of drug production are right around the area of Central America and the northern parts of South America.
Close ties between the criminal societies of Columbia, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, etc. have developed, and now the drug channels are even harder to find and bust. Today Peru on its own produces more than 320 tons of cocaine each year and is up there with Columbia as one of the world’s major exporters of cocaine.