Maritime drug trafficking in Latin America

Maritime drug trafficking in Latin America is the primary mean of transportation of illegal drugs produced in this region to global consumer markets. Cocaine is the primary illegal drug smuggled through maritime routes because all of its cultivation and production is settled in the Andean region of South America.[1][2]

The smuggling of drugs through the sea is a security problem for all the countries of the region.[2][3] Drug trafficking organizations have developed various complex systems for the transportation and distribution of illegal drugs, where several countries in the region serve as points of contact for the distribution of illegal products by land, air or sea.

Is estimated that 90% of the cocaine produced in the Andean region is transported at some point by sea.[4]

  1. ^ Cocaine: A European Union perspective in the global context (Publication). (2010). Lisbon: EMCDDA–Europol joint publications. doi:10.2810/16059
  2. ^ a b Perez, Ana Lilia (2014). Mares de Cocaina. Grijalbo Mondari. ISBN 978-6073126359.
  3. ^ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (2012). Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean. A Threat Assessment. (September)
  4. ^ Guerrero, Javier. "Innovation in the War on Drugs: Narcosubs". The Marine Executive.