HomeNewsDo El Salvador Seizures Signal Pacific Cocaine Surge?
NEWS

Do El Salvador Seizures Signal Pacific Cocaine Surge?

COCAINE / 12 JAN 2022 BY ALEX PAPADOVASSILAKIS EN

El Salvador’s Navy has seized record amounts of cocaine recently, indicating a possible resurgence of maritime trafficking off the country’s Pacific coast.

The latest interdictions occurred at the close of 2021, when authorities intercepted two drug submarines carrying more than four tons of cocaine, according to a January 3 government news release.

The haul capped off a year in which authorities seized nearly 12 tons of cocaine, a massive jump from the 2.9 tons seized in 2020 and 1.4 tons in 2019, according to official figures published by state media. Most of the cocaine was discovered on vessels in waters off El Salvador’s Pacific coast, such as a trio of go-fast boats intercepted in mid-November with 2.5 tons of cocaine. Another boat was captured in July with 1.4 tons.

SEE ALSO: Revived Drug Routes, Evolving Street Gangs in El Salvador

While El Salvador’s coast has been actively used by drug traffickers moving South American cocaine north for decades, the maritime route had appeared to be dormant after record seizures by El Salvador’s Navy in 2017 and 2018.

InSight Crime Analysis

El Salvador’s spike in maritime cocaine seizures comes alongside a return of trafficking on the country’s Pacific coast and US collaboration to improve enforcement.

Enhanced patrolling had led traffickers to steer clear of El Salvador’s Pacific, resulting in a “sustained decline” in maritime trafficking in 2019 and 2020, according to US State Department anti-narcotics reports and representatives of the El Salvador Attorney General’s Office. Cocaine smuggling also shifted to overland routes through Central America, including in El Salvador, where in 2020, large quantities of drugs were discovered in trucks.

The recent string of maritime seizures, however, suggests that traffickers are returning to the Pacific route, a pattern seen elsewhere in the region, including off Panama.

SEE ALSO: Panama Serves as Latest Gateway for Drugs to Europe

The administration of President Nayib Bukele has been quick to take credit for last year’s massive drug haul, claiming it to be the result of his Territorial Control plan. That plan, though, has focused mostly on sending forces into the streets in gang-controlled neighborhoods.

The country’s Navy had continued strengthening in 2020, with the US State Department reporting that it was “in the process of increasing its coverage of coastal areas by enhancing maritime interdiction capabilities.”

US security forces have long been crucial in the country’s anti-drug efforts, operating a cooperative military monitoring center at an El Salvador airfield since the 2000s and frequently sharing information with authorities.

Indeed, El Salvador’s defense minister confirmed that the latest seizure was aided by US intelligence.

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

COCAINE / 23 NOV 2022

The 'Ndrangheta have made the Italian port of Gioia Tauro crucial to their European cocaine empire by controlling it with…

COCAINE / 10 MAY 2022

Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández pleaded not guilty to US drug charges on the same day that a notorious…

COCAINE / 23 JAN 2023

A string of large cocaine seizures in Jamaica suggests the island is becoming a central hub for trafficking to the…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…