MIAMI: Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations were dealing with a recent finding of cocaine hidden inside two bags of coffee grounds.
It turns out coffee does not fool drug sniffing dogs. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted two coffee bags with four pounds of cocaine from Peru — arguably the world’s leading cocaine producer — at Miami International Airport last month.
“CBP officers selected the package for further examination and noticed anomalies on the X-ray screen,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Keith Smith said in a statement.
The finding is miniscule. Peruvian authorities estimate that about 60 percent of their production is exported to the U.S. and Europe with the help of drug lords who have deals with foreign cartels such as the Mexican Sinaloa and the Russian mob.
But Peruvian cocaine trade is highly decentralized. A Venezuelan was recently arrested in Lima, after Peruvian authorities found about 465 pounds in a Spanish ship on its way to Mexico.
Poor farmers grow most of the coca plants at the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley region, known in law enforcement as the VRAEM, where Peruvian authorities established a no-fly zone. Leftist Shining Path rebels remain in the area.
Peruvian cocaine costs less due to cheap base ingredients that allow Peruvians to get more base out of less leaves, according to an Insight Crime analyst. The “Cocaleros” sell the leaf to small groups that process it to powder rather than coca paste, which includes residues of hydrocarbons, typically gasoline, used in the initial processing.
Revenues from exports are estimated at some $22 billion and earnings continue to rise, according to Gestion, a Peruvian business daily.
Only a handful of regional drug capos have been arrested in recent years — and no major traffickers, Sonia Medina, Peru’s state attorney for narcotics, said. She is a critic of drug corruption in the country’s criminal justice system.
Both former President Alan Garcia and President Ollanta Humala pardoned hundreds of criminals linked to drug trafficking. But Humala has promised to end cocaine trafficking. Earlier this year, he told reporters that Peru was no longer the world’s top producer.
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