Pubdate: Thu, 09 Sep 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: John Otis, Special to the Chronicle

POTENT PLANT MAY BOOST COLOMBIA'S COCAINE SUPPLY

BOGOTA, Colombia -- In an alarming trend that could mean a sharp
increase in the world's supply of Colombian cocaine, drug dealers and
peasant farmers here have started growing a more potent variety of
coca plant, according to U.S. officials.

The new species of coca, the raw material for cocaine, contains higher
levels of cocaine alkaloid than the coca traditionally cultivated in
Colombia. What's more, nearly all of the new coca bushes are located
in southern Putumayo state, a guerrilla-infested region that is out of
reach of Colombian police cropdusters that target the coca crop.

The new coca species is common throughout Peru and Bolivia and was
introduced to Colombia a few years ago, the officials said. "As this
new coca reaches maturity, Colombia's potential cocaine production may
significantly increase, from 165 metric tons in 1998 to between 195
and 250 metric tons in 1999," the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
said in a statement.

"It's going to look like a big, ugly jump," added a U.S. official who
closely monitors Colombia. "The word we use is `skyrocket.' "

Last year, Colombia produced about 80 percent of the cocaine that
entered the United States, according to U.S. government estimates.

Bogota officials point out that actual cocaine exports from Colombia
this year will be smaller than the DEA estimates on potential
production because those figures do not take into account police raids
against drug laboratories and narcotics seizures. But the Colombians
too are concerned.

"We share these worries," said Col. Leonardo Gallego, who heads
Colombia's anti-narcotics police unit. "The narco-trafficking
networks have access to a variety of coca that will give them higher
yields on smaller plots of land. That makes detection and eradication
more difficult."

Following government crackdowns in Peru and Bolivia, drug dealers
transferred part of their coca-growing operations to Colombia in the
early 1990s. Due to the poor soil quality in Colombia's southern
jungles, farmers favored a variety of plant known as e. coca ipadu, or
simply ipadu.

A rustic species that can be grown from tree cuttings planted directly
in the ground, ipadu bushes produce their first leaves within 16
months and can be harvested up to four times a year.

"The first coca farmers and the narco-traffickers promoted this type
of coca because it is so easy to manage," said Luis Eduardo Parra, a
Colombian agronomist closely involved in the police fumigation program.

But since 1995, the U.S.-backed aerial eradication program carried out
by the Colombian police has wiped out thousands of acres of coca in
Guaviare, Meta and Caqueta states. To escape the air raids, coca
farmers have pushed deeper into the jungle.

Today, they are growing about 86,000 acres of coca on vast plantations
in Putumayo, according to Colombian estimates. Richer soils and higher
altitudes in Putumayo, a remote state located on the Ecuadorean
border, have allowed farmers to cultivate a variety known as e. coca
coca.

Although this species requires seedbeds and constant care in the
initial stages, the mature trees live longer and produce more foliage
than ipadu.

What's more, the leaves are larger and contain between 0.7 percent and
0.85 percent cocaine alkaloid by weight compared to about 0.5 percent
for ipadu leaves, according to Parra.

"Putumayo is the new frontier and it's almost all e. coca coca," Parra
said. "Will that mean more cocaine? Yes."

The conversion rate of coca leaf to powder cocaine depends on the
efficiency of clandestine drug laboratories that use a variety of
chemicals in the process.

The conversion rate for Colombian labs was unavailable. But in
Bolivia, Parra said that an acre of ipadu produces about 5.7 pounds of
cocaine while an acre of e. coca coca produces about 6.4 pounds of
cocaine.

Planting the new species appears to be another way for traffickers to
stay one step ahead of authorities in the ongoing drug war.

During a trip to Colombia in July, U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey
warned that the new coca leaf could help drug lords recover from
Colombia's aggressive aerial fumigation program. Since 1996, police
pilots have sprayed about 380,000 acres of coca.

"If you get a higher content plant, we may erase the gains of the last
three years in the coming year," McCaffrey said.

Although the police hope to start fumigating in Putumayo in the coming
months, they now lack spray planes, support helicopters and other
facilities to cover the region.

The area is also a haven for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, the nation's largest rebel group known as the FARC. The
organization earns millions of dollars annually by providing
protection for drug traffickers and coca farmers.

FARC rebels have shot down low-flying crop dusters and support
aircraft, killing dozens of Colombian pilots as well as three U.S.
civilian fliers contracted by the State Department. In July, a U.S.
reconnaissance plane on an anti-drug mission crashed in the mountains
of Putumayo, killing the five U.S. soldiers and two Colombians aboard.

Colombia is receiving about $289 million in U.S. aid for the police
and military this year and has requested another $500 million over the
next two years. But critics say that the aerial spraying program has
failed to reduce drug production levels in Colombia because coca
farmers simply move on and plant more.

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