Ton of cocaine found in canned fish
Fish was headed to U.S.
Sunday, April 17, 2005 Posted: 0150 GMT (0950 HKT)
edition.cnn.com
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Police have seized more than a ton of cocaine destined for the United States as it was being packed into a shipment of canned fish at a seafood processing plant, authorities said Saturday.
Ten people, including the plant's 74-year-old owner, were arrested the day before at the Colra Fish factory in Tacna, near Peru's southern border with Chile.
Just over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of cocaine were confiscated, Peru's Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Three handguns, four cellular telephones and $1,500 in cash were also seized.
Peruvian authorities have seized more than five tons of cocaine and arrested 65 suspects since January, police said.
Peru, once the world's leading producer of coca, the source of cocaine, slashed its production by 70 percent between 1995 and 2001 thanks to low coca prices, interdiction, forced eradication of coca fields and programs to help farmers grow alternative crops.
But according to Peru's anti-drug agency, Devida, rising coca prices caused production to jump from 44,000 hectares (108,680 acres) in 2003 to 50,600 hectares (123,500 acres) last year as new plantings outpaced eradication.
Peruvian authorities say cocaine traffickers have re-established ties with remnants of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency to thwart the government's coca eradication programs in Peru's Amazon jungle. |
