Cocaine To Overtake Oil As Colombia’s Biggest Export

NEW DELHI: According to a Bloomberg report, Colombia’s revenues from the export of cocaine last year amounted to $18.2 billion while that from oil exports was barely a notch ahead at $19.1 billion. With the cultivation of coca leaves expanding to cover 2,30,000 hectares, cocaine production will be Colombia’s top revenue earner very soon.

Colombia traffics cocaine to North America, Europe, and Asia through transit points in Africa, the Middle East, and South-eastern Asia. Sophisticated local criminal networks are linked to international organized crime groups that traffic the drug across porous borders.