The illegal drug trade is a casualty of the COVID-19 outbreak. On three continents, Reuters found busted cocaine supply chains, delivery delays, disgruntled workers and millions of customers on lockdown. But innovation and opportunism thrive
RIO DE JANEIRO/MEXICO CITY - Countries around the world have spent billions of dollars bailing out businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Peru’s coca farmers, who grow the bushy plant used to make cocaine, say they want help, too.
Peru “has to design clear intervention strategies for coca,” Pérez said. “We’re screwed, just like everyone else in the world.”The coronavirus outbreak has upended industries across the globe. The international narcotics trade has not been spared. From the cartel badlands along the U.S.-Mexico border and verdant coca fields of the Andes, to street dealers in London and Paris, traffickers are grappling with many of the same woes as legitimate businesses, Reuters has found.
Latin America is the epicenter of a global drugs trade that is estimated to be worth up to $650 billion a year, according to Global Financial Integrity, a U.S.-based think tank. Gangs reap huge profits producing and transporting cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl that is sold worldwide.
Disruptions to global trade have jacked up prices for imported chemicals such as ephedrine that are needed to manufacture meth, a major piece of the organization’s narcotics empire. Meanwhile, a partial shutdown of the U.S.-Mexico border to slow the spread of the virus has complicated distribution, according to two Sinaloa Cartel members who spoke with Reuters.
“Everything has stopped at the border,” said the Sinaloa Cartel fentanyl “cook” who spoke with Reuters. Seven anti-narcotics officials in the United States, including three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials, described a U.S. drugs market in flux. Jerome Washington, a sergeant in the El Paso County Sheriff’s office in Texas, said the decline in vehicle traffic had prompted dealers to reduce the number of drug runs they make across the border.
In the United Kingdom, cocaine seizures in the 2018/19 financial year reached 9.65 tonnes, the highest total since records began in 1973, and up nearly 200% compared with the 2017/18 total, the Home Office said. “Because of the coronavirus situation, everyone has to get creative and find alternatives,” he said. Still, he said it’s unlikely that ENACO, which has annual sales of about 35 million soles , could help many of those affected.
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