While the heroin trade originates in Asia, the cocaine and cannabis trade is centred in the Americas. Estimates published by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP, Global Illicit Drug Trends 2002) provide an outline of the scale and geographical pattern of the industry in the hemisphere.

For cocaine, just three countries are reported to account for global production: Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Estimates are given for area cultivated in coca, potential production of coca leaf and potential production of cocaine.

The figures indicate significant changes in the second half of the 1980s and in the 1990s. Between 1985 and 1999 estimated global cultivation increased by 83 percent, but coca leaf production more than doubled and cocaine production more than tripled. In other words, yields have increased dramatically due to improved production methods and technology.

There has also been a marked shift in the location of production from Bolivia and Peru to Colombia. In 1985 Colombia's share in the industry was small. By 2001 it accounted for 69 percent of coca cultivation, 77 percent of potential coca leaf production and 75 percent of potential cocaine production.

The shift helps to explain why the Greater Caribbean region occupies a central position in trans-shipment routes for both the North American and European markets. An OAS report on Maritime Drug Trafficking Routes and Methods in the Americas (CICAD/Doc.984/98) identifies two major routing areas: the "Amazon corridor" and the "Caribbean corridor".

The Amazon corridor involves parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia and Paraguay. The Caribbean corridor involves the countries of northern South and Central America and the island chain.

The Caribbean corridor itself involves two routes, both originating from Colombia's North Coast and from Venezuela. One is centred on Puerto Rico, where the drug is re-packaged and staged for direct shipments into the US East Coast. "Go-fast boats" follow the Venezuelan coastline and proceed either directly to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti or keeping close to the coasts of the eastern Caribbean islands, blending with normal traffic.

In the second, vessels follow a northwesterly course into the western Caribbean to locations on or near the shore of the Yucatan Peninsula for off-loading of cocaine to transit Mexico.

In 1999, 33 countries in the Greater Caribbean provided estimates of trafficking (Table). The list includes most of the Caribbean islands, large and small, independent and non-independent and all of Central America. Many believe that this trafficking lies behind the steep growth in homicides in several countries in recent years.

 

Estimated cocaine trafficking in the Greater Caribbean, 1999

Sub-region	No. of countries reporting	Trafficking (kg.)
Island Caribbean	21(1)	11,604
Central America	7 (2)	16,690
South America	4 (3)	76,572
North America	1 (4)	34,622

Source: UNODCCP: Global Illicit Drug Trends, 2002.

 

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