NCJ Number
220493
Date Published
July 2006
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP's) report on cocaine smuggling in 2005 addresses production, movement, consumption, and seizures/disruptions.
Abstract
Based on data on cocaine production, consumption, and movement, the U.S. counterdrug community estimates that approximately 520 to 730 metric tons of export-quality cocaine departed South America for the United State in 2005. The amount of cocaine leaving South America for the United States has remained relatively stable since 2000. Most of this cocaine has moved through Central America and Mexico. The smuggling departure areas in 2005 were similar to those in 2004. The 2005 Andean cocaine production estimate increased 21 percent compared to the 2004 estimate, largely due to an increase in the number of areas surveyed in Colombia and Peru. The 2005 coca crop surveys showed that coca cultivation in Colombia has increasingly moved out of traditional growing areas. Efforts to reduce the amount of cocaine that made it to the United States and Europe in 2005 resulted in the eighth consecutive year of record-breaking worldwide cocaine seizures and disruptions. Drug interdiction efforts in 2005 caused the largest year-to-year increase in seizure totals ever recorded, forcing cocaine traffickers to resort to more complex and costly drug-trafficking methods. Even with sustained interdiction pressure, however, traffickers continued to exhibit a high degree of resilience in sending multi-ton cocaine loads toward the United States and Europe. 4 figures