Huge quantities of seized drugs in Ecuador are presenting the Andean country with an unlikely new construction material: cocaine.
Using the so-called encapsulation method, with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Ecuador pulverizes seized bricks of cocaine in industrial machines with other refuse at a waste disposal plant before mixing the resulting fine powder with cement, sand and water to create concrete platforms.
Hundreds of blocks of cocaine hydrochloride and coca paste seized from across Ecuador arrive each week at a waste treatment plant on the outskirts of the capital Quito to be broken down along with glass, expired medicines and even oil waste, technicians said.As the slurry sets, it reacts with the other material present to form a stable, hard and impenetrable matrix which prevents the cocaine from seeping into the ground or being recovered, according to the UN office.
Once this hole is filled with the cocaine-laced concrete, another one is waiting to repeat the process. There are currently no plans to use the encapsulated cocaine for other infrastructure projects. It can take about 12 hours to incinerate a tonne of cocaine but it takes less than three hours to encapsulate the same amount, according to Pablo Ramirez, Ecuador's Director of Anti-Drug Investigation.
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