HomeNewsBriefCaribbean Cocaine Trafficking Continues Rise: US Officials
BRIEF

Caribbean Cocaine Trafficking Continues Rise: US Officials

CARIBBEAN / 17 APR 2014 BY JAMES BARGENT AND ARMANDO CORDOBA EN

The proportion of drugs trafficked through the Caribbean has more than tripled in the space of five years, according to US officials, adding weight to the persistent warnings that traffickers are seeking new routes as a result of security forces pressure in Central America and Mexico. 

The head of the Caribbean division of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Vito Salvatore Guarino, told Spain's El Pais that in the last three to five years the amount of cocaine passing through the Caribbean en route to the United States has risen from 5 percent of the total to 16 percent of the total. According to Guarino, in absolute terms, he estimates traffickers currently ship 90-100 tons through the region, versus close to 70 tons in prior years.  

From October 2012 to October 2013, anti-narcotics forces seized 28 tons of drugs being moved through the region and arrested over 1,500 people on drug charges. This has continued to rise since then, with a 2 percent increase in the proportion of drugs moving through the region during the first trimester of the 2014 fiscal year.

The most commonly used routes depart from the port of Cartagena, before moving on to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, according to Guarino. Jamaica, already a major marijuana producer country, has also emerged as a major cocaine transhipment point. 

InSight Crime Analysis

In the three years since Caribbean leaders warned the US of an increase in drug trafficking through the region, it has become increasingly apparent that traffickers are looking to revive the Caribbean cocaine corridors popular in the 1980s, when 75 percent of drugs seized in transit to the United States were interdicted along these routes.  

At least part of the increased activity along the Caribbean routes is a result of the security forces crackdown in Mexico and Central America, which themselves became popular due to anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean, highlighting how trafficking routes migrate to follow the path of least resistance.

The use of Caribbean ports and transit points has been underscored by recent seizures. In just the last two weeks, two record breaking shipments of liquid cocaine and cocaine were seized by Colombian authorities at the port of Cartagena, one a seven ton load destined for the Netherlands, the other a record 2.8 ton haul of liquefied cocaine, which was headed for Guatemala.

In addition, the US Coast Guard recently unloaded 3.3 tons of cocaine at a base in Miami Beach following two separate drug interdictions in the Caribbean, one of which took place just south of Jamaica, the other in the south west Caribbean sea.

However, despite the seizures and the warnings of regional officials, the DEA's figures show how the Caribbean remains some distance from taking over as the principal route linking the Andean cocaine production countries to the United States. Authorities believe that about 350 tons of cocaine still moves through the Isthmus. 

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.

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

COCA / 28 APR 2023

A collapse in coca prices means Colombian farmers are struggling to sell their coca crops. The cocaine trade won't be…

AUC / 17 FEB 2022

An "invisible" Colombian drug lord whose criminal history dates to the country's former paramilitary army has been revealed to have…

COLOMBIA / 22 JUN 2022

The ELN have stated their will to engage in peace talks with the upcoming administration of Colombia's president-elect Gustavo Petro,…

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…