HomeNewsBriefPeruvian Cocaine Best Value For Traffickers: Bolivia Police
BRIEF

Peruvian Cocaine Best Value For Traffickers: Bolivia Police

BOLIVIA / 21 MAY 2013 BY MIRIAM WELLS EN

Drug traffickers operating along the Bolivia-Brazil cocaine route are buying up Peruvian product because it costs significantly less, according to Bolivia's top counternarcotics official.

According to Colonel Gonzalo Quezada, director of Bolivia's anti-drug police police, about 50 percent of the 7.7 tons of cocaine seized in Bolivia so far in 2013 originated in Peru.

A kilo of cocaine base cost between $800 and $900 in Peru, said Quezada, whereas in Bolivia it cost between $1,000 and $1,200. According to police intelligence, Brazilian organized crime groups have direct links with traffickers working in Peru's Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley region (known as the VRAEM), who export drugs through Bolivia, he added.

Quezada predicted that seizure figures for 2013 would likely be lower than last year, not because there was less cocaine being transported but because traffickers were becoming "more efficient." 

InSight Crime Analysis

Quezada's comments echo statements made by a drug trafficker last week to a Peruvian newspaper and seizure statistics from previous years, further evidence that significant amounts of Peruvian cocaine are being sent through Bolivia into Brazil, the world's second-largest market for the drug. An estimated 3,000 kilos of cocaine is believed to leave the VRAEM region for Brazil every month, according to one newspaper report published last year. Bolivia's geographical position, porous borders, and weak law enforcement have made it a key transit nation for traffickers, as well as a significant producer of both coca and cocaine. 

Why Peruvian cocaine base is so much cheaper than its Bolivian counterpart -- and Colombian, which costs around $1,200 a kilo -- is unclear, but one possible explanation is the quality of its base ingredients. While Peruvian producers still use open-air maceration pits rather than the newer, more efficient "Colombian method," the coca leaf they use is a much more potent strain that that used in Bolivia and Colombia. Being able to get more base out of less leaves, despite using a less efficient method, may be keeping production costs down to an extent that allows them to sell product on at a lower price. 

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

CHILE / 16 NOV 2022

The capture of Tren de Aragua members will test if Peru and Chile’s prisons can hold this dangerous gang.

BOLIVIA / 8 NOV 2022

Environmental crime is driving deforestation across the Amazon, where some parts are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

BRAZIL / 4 APR 2023

In Leticia, a tri-border between Colombia, Brazil, and Peru, Brazilian gangs are pushing up violence as the battle for control.

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…