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Special Report: Crime and security – trends and solutions (ISSN 17414474)
Colombian cocaine production surges ahead
Just as increased US heroin consumption is disrupting the illegal narcotics ‘equilibrium’ from a demand-side point of view, so an increase in Colombian cocaine production may be doing the same from the supply side. According to the US government’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 2017 (INCSR 2017) in 2015, the latest year for which full data is available, estimated pure cocaine production in Colombia rose by 60% to 495 metric tonnes. This was attributed to “the largest single-year increase of coca cultivation in Colombia ever recorded”. The cultivated area in that year was up by 42% to 159,000 hectares. DEA data meanwhile shows that approximately 90% of cocaine samples seized and chemically analysed in the US were of Colombian origin.
- Executive summary
- The homicide rate: fluctuating, but too high
- Organised crime remains resilient
- Crime remains a profitable business
- A heroin epidemic in the United States?
- Colombian cocaine production surges ahead
- Prison reform is urgently needed
- White collar crime: the battle against ‘grand corruption’
- The criminal justice system struggles to cope