International Drug Trafficking: The Colombia Experience (From Transnational Crime: Investigative Responses, P 57-72, 1989, Harold E Smith, ed. -- See NCJ-120383)

• NCJ Number: 120392
• Author(s): M J Castano
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the 3rd Annual Symposium on International Criminal Justice Issues, University of Illinois at Chicago

Annotation

The Director of Planning for Colombia's National Police examines marijuana and cocaine trafficking in his country, the association between drug traffickers and guerrillas, and the police's counternarcotics response.

Abstract

Drug trafficking has significantly affected Colombia's political, social, and economic scene. The Extradition Treaty between Colombia and the United States, approved by Law 27 and enforced in 1980, constitutes the most powerful legal weapon in Colombia's fight against drug trafficking. A nationwide approach to counter narcotics has been devised that encompasses coca and marijuana cultivation, internal consumption, coca processing, drug trafficking, and guerrillas. Strategies have been initiated to prevent drug addiction and to substitute crops for the cultivation of coca. The government has also authorized the involvement of all national authorities in controlling and repressing the production, trade, and unlawful use of drugs. These authorities include the National Police, judicial power, military forces, administrative security departments, and customs. Government counternarcotics operations have intensified in recent years against criminal organizations, laboratories, and aircraft and clandestine airstrips. In the first 4 months of 1988, 2,335 persons were taken into custody, 22 vessels and 17 aircraft were confiscated, 11,624 kilograms of cocaine and coca base were seized, and 635 laboratories were dismantled.