Coca plants grew by 13% in Colombia and stood at 230,000 hectares in 2022, representing the highest figure in history for the second consecutive year, and also an increase in the potential production of cocaine, revealed by the Office on Monday, September 11. of the United Nations. on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its annual report.
“For the second year in a row, the cultivation of coca has reached the highest in the history of Colombia,” revealed Unodc, who reported that there were 26,000 hectares cultivated more than the 204,000 registered in 2021.
The document also warns of a 24% increase in the potential production of cocaine hydrochloride, since last year it was 1,738 tons and in 2021 it will be 1,400 tons.
Regarding this, the agency stated that “the trend of increasing the potential production of cocaine continues as a result of the large number of hectares planted with coca, many of which are of a more productive age and located in areas of higher productivity. ”
Details about plants
According to Unodc, the most worrying situation is the department of Putumayo, where coca crops have increased by 77%.
The situation is so critical in this region, where many factions opposed to the former FARC operate, that the increase in the area planted with coca in Colombia, excluding Putumayo, is almost 3%.
On the other hand, the office shows that 65% of the coca crops are in three departments: Nariño, Norte de Santander and Putumayo.
Another revealing fact from the report is that there is coca planted in 185 of the 1,122 municipalities in Colombia and that the municipality with the most plants is Tibú, in Norte de Santander, with 22,000 hectares, which does not show even what a change.
“They are followed by Tumaco (Nariño) and Puerto AsÃs (Putumayo), which increased their area with coca by more than 6,500 hectares together last year,” added the information.
On the other hand, the UNODC document highlights that 49% of crops are located in specially managed areas, distributed in National Natural Parks (21.5%), indigenous reservations (18%), lands of black people communities (4%) and forest reserves (2%).
Government job
In the report, Unodc also published the “interventions for supply control reported by the National Government.”
According to these figures, 106.7 tons of cocaine paste were seized last year, representing an increase of 20% compared to 88.6 tons in 2021.
However, cocaine seizures stood at 659.1 tons in 2022, a drop of 1.5% compared to last year, even though organizations are reducing cocaine shipments and making them from the base paste of the country coming to minimize losses.
The number of illegal laboratories dismantled also decreased by 18%, from 5,750 in 2021 to 4,707 in 2022.
