HomeNewsBriefBolivia Drug Mules Cheating Controls with Liquid Cocaine: Official
BRIEF

Bolivia Drug Mules Cheating Controls with Liquid Cocaine: Official

BOLIVIA / 21 JAN 2014 BY MICHAEL LOHMULLER EN

Officials in Bolivia say drug mules are increasingly ingesting liquid cocaine in an effort to avoid detection during transport, a tactic that has the potential to grow in use as drug traffickers continually search for lower-risk and cost-effective ways to get their product to the market undetected.

Alexander Rojas, the director of Bolivia’s anti-narcotics police unit (FELCN), said ingesting liquid cocaine "is the new form of moving cocaine chlorhydrate," reported La Razon. He said the method was usually used to move drugs to Chile, where the cocaine multiplied in cost compared with Bolivian prices, from around $3,000 to up to $15,000.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Bolivia

Using latex to transport cocaine in liquid form makes it more difficult to detect, according to Rojas. The color of the liquid and the transparency of the latex are not as visible as capsules to x-ray equipment and airport security.

Transporting liquid cocaine in latex, instead of in powder capsules, also makes it possible to swallow more of the drug in fewer packages. "Each person can carry approximately one kilo or a little more," said Rojas. However, this also poses a greater risk of death if the latex were to burst, reported La Razon.

In 2013, at least ten people were arrested for transporting liquid cocaine in Bolivia. Two more almost died recently while trying to take drugs to Chile using this method. Rojas believes the transport of liquid cocaine in latex by mules out of Cochabamba has become common since 2011.

InSight Crime Analysis

Moving cocaine in liquid form is nothing new -- this has also become a popular way of moving large drug shipments, as it is easier to disguise. This soluble form can be packaged and shipped in inventive ways to avoid detection, such as absorbing the drug in clothing or freezing it.

Ingesting liquid cocaine to cheat airport security and x-ray machines, however, appears to be a relatively new development in cocaine trafficking methods.

Chile has become a major destination for mules trafficking drugs from Bolivia, though earlier reports have centered on cocaine moved by bus. Mules can be paid as little of $1,000 in Bolivia to swallow around a kilo of cocaine, making them a relatively cost-effective transport method.

Using mules to transport liquid cocaine could provide traffickers with a way to increasingly rely on aerial trafficking -- which is much more efficient than land trafficking and carries a lower risk of detection.

While it remains small scale at the moment, the ability of this tactic to elude detection could lead to its becoming a region wide phenomenon.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BOLIVIA / 21 FEB 2023

Passenger buses are the latest means of smuggling contraband goods in Bolivia, where the impact of COVID-19 has seen smuggling…

BOLIVIA / 23 SEP 2022

As world leaders met for the United Nations General Assembly, Latin American presidents expressed various concerns about organized crime.

ARGENTINA / 7 MAR 2022

Paraguay has launched the biggest operation against cocaine trafficking and money laundering in its history, unleashing a scandal that has…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…