IMA, Peru, Nov. 13 - The United States war on drugs in Colombia is rapidly being subsumed in the war on terror, according to Bush administration officials.

The indictments of three leaders of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, announced today in Washington by Attorney General John Ashcroft, are just the latest in a series of American indictments against Colombians. Carlos Castano, the head of the right-wing Self-Defense Forces, was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in September, and four other men linked to the paramilitary group were indicted on drug-related charges in Houston this month.

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LIMA, Peru -- Barely three years after the United States declared victory in the war on drugs in Peru, the illegal crops are making a comeback.

While some U.S. officials say it's too early to sound the alarm bells, Peruvian and international experts are concerned by signs of increased cultivation of coca, the raw material of cocaine.

Colombian drug traffickers also have introduced poppy plants, used to make heroin, which have rarely been seen before in Peru.

"Production is definitely up," said Peru's Interior Minister Gino Costa. "We don't know exactly how much at this stage, but it's enough to worry us."

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Stepping up the war on drugs, the US government is preparing to restart its 'Air Bridge Denial' (ABD) programme more than a year after an aircraft carrying civilian missionaries was accidentally shot down in April 2001. The new measures will include the transfer of sophisticated surveillance aircraft and technology to the Peruvian Air Force (FAP), which will now conduct all the actual operations that are expected to restart by year-end. The involvement of US personnel in the air-intercept programme was ended after the April 2001 accident.

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MONZON, Peru (AP) -- Swaths of scarred earth blanket the hillsides of this jungle valley -- the environmental consequence of a cocaine trade striving to meet demand in the United States and Europe.

Analysts estimate that nearly 6 million acres of Peruvian rain forest have been hacked down in the past three decades to grow coca, a shrub leaf that is the primary source of cocaine. More than 14,800 tons of toxic chemicals are dumped into the Amazon jungle every year as traffickers turn coca into raw cocaine paste.

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LIMA, Peru,(Reuters) -- Peru, the world's No. 2 cocaine producer, has changed tack in its war on drugs, offering farmers cash and job benefits to eradicate crops voluntarily, but officials admit illicit cultivation still is on the rise.

Nils Ericsson, the Andean nation's anti-drugs "czar," said on Wednesday Peru had launched a new campaign offering farmers a decent day's pay to rip up their cocaine-producing crops, and guaranteeing them jobs in infrastructure and other projects instead to develop legal economies in the drug heartlands.

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LIMA, Peru -- Peru's anti-drug czar warned about a possible rebound in coca cultivation Wednesday and said the Andean nation has revamped its efforts to wipe out the illegal farming of the leaf.

Peru's eradication of coca -- the base ingredient of cocaine -- has been touted as a major success in the U.S.-led war on drugs. Once the world's leading producer, Peru slashed its coca production by 70 percent between 1995 and 2001, according to U.S. government figures.

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Oxfam is launching a campaign to help coffee-growers in Brazil, Colombia and Peru achieve a just price for their beans.

With coffee prices so low, many growers in Peru are switching to coca in order to make ends meet.

With 225,000 hectares under cultivation, Peru's coffee production pales in comparison with two of its South American neighbours, Brazil and Colombia.

But it is still one of the world's top 10 producers and its coffee is top quality.

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WASHINGTON -- About 600 Marines will exercise for the first time in the Amazon Basin of Peru, but Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said Saturday the maneuvers are not a precursor to building a U.S. military base in the South American country. The Peruvian Congress has authorized the Marine operation at the Peruvian navy's Nanay base on the banks of the Amazon near Iquitos, 650 miles northeast of Lima. Previous significant U.S.-Peruvian operations have been in the Pacific and not inland.

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Nearly an hour before a Peruvian Air Force A-37 fighter jet shot down a single engine float plane carrying American missionaries from the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism in April 2001, a CIA contract pilot flying a spotter aircraft said he was "a little nervous" about the Peruvians' assumption that drug traffickers were flying the plane.

The CIA man's hesitation is documented in a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report that was recently made available on the committee's Web site. The chronology in the report lays bare a fatal chain of mistakes that took the lives of two Americans.

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LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A civilian court has ordered the release of two air force pilots who were jailed after they mistakenly shot down a small plane in 2001, killing an American missionary and her infant child, their lawyer said Monday.

Defense lawyer Jorge Power said his clients' right to be charged within nine months of incarceration had been violated. They had been in prison for more than 10 months.

Peruvian Air Force Maj. Jose Antonio Redhead and Lt. Richard Hercilla should be released this week, Power said. He said the court made its decision Thursday.

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LIMA, Peru - The highest prices in almost 20 years for coca leaf, cocaine's raw material, are pushing farmers in Peru to plant more drug crops, a top anti-drug official said.

Nils Ericsson, head of Peru's anti-drug agency, told Reuters a kilo of coca leaf was now selling for between $3 and $4, the highest price since 1985.

Coupled with a violent rebel conflict and government crackdown putting the squeeze on drug producers in the world's top cocaine-producing nation, neighbor Colombia, Peru has caught the eye of Colombian drug producers.

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LIMA, Peru - A State Department cable from the U.S. Embassy once described former Peruvian security chief Vladimiro Montesinos as a "valued ally in the drug war, but no choir boy." Peruvian investigators now believe Montesinos was a traitor in that war.

As Montesinos languishes in jail, at least nine accused or convicted drug traffickers in Colombia, Panama and Peru have come forward to allege that he collected money for assisting selected criminal drug enterprises, according to reports compiled by prosecutors and congressional investigators who are trying to uncover the extent of his criminal involvement.

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LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru has agreed to ease up on anti-drug operations in response to protests by coca farmers, the second move in a month that jeopardize U.S.-backed efforts to fight the cocaine trade.

The government agreed Monday to gradually reduce the cultivation of coca - the raw material in cocaine - and help find markets for alternative crops grown in Peru's second-largest coca producing valley, the Ene-Apurimac river basin.

The agreement follows one in late June in which the government suspended a coca eradication program in the Huallaga River valley in the eastern Amazon jungle region.

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LIMA, Peru - Peru's top anti-drug official said the government hopes to soon resume a recently suspended program to wipe out illegal coca cultivation.

"It won't be very long. From our point of view the sooner the better," Nils Ericsson told reporters Friday. "In no way have we canceled the program."

Facing protests by thousands of coca farmers, Peru's anti-drug agency agreed June 28 to suspend efforts to eradicate coca - the raw material of cocaine - in the Huallaga River valley in the eastern Amazon region.

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U.S. Goal in Andes Dealt a Setback

LIMA - The Peruvian government has abruptly halted forced eradication of coca plants and suspended crop substitution programs in coca-growing valleys, dealing a major blow to U.S. efforts to halt cocaine production in the Andes. As a result, the U.S. operation to control illegal drug crops in Peru -- heretofore considered an unqualified success -- is nearly paralyzed as farmers and government officials question its effectiveness and demand changes.

The sudden development cast doubts over the future of U.S. efforts to stop the cultivation of coca plants and cocaine production throughout the region.

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Peru, a nation hailed by the United States as an Andean success story in the war on drugs, has suspended its participation in U.S.-funded coca-eradication programs.

Also halted in the process was the related crop-substitution program, under which Peruvian farmers are paid to grow crops other than coca.

The programs were suspended after Peruvian officials met with farm representatives Friday and agreed to immediately end eradication of the coca plant -- from which cocaine is made -- in the Upper Huallaga Valley.

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LIMA, Peru -- Peru has cut programs to uproot coca fields and encourage farmers to grow alternative crops, key parts of the U.S.- backed war against cocaine.

To appease protesting coca farmers, Peru's anti-drug agency agreed over the weekend to suspend efforts to eradicate coca -- the raw material of cocaine - -- in the Huallaga River valley in the eastern Amazon jungle region.

The government also halted efforts by CARE, an Atlanta-based aid agency, to wean farmers in the Ene and Apurimac River valleys, also in the eastern Amazon, from cultivating the coca leaf.

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Operation in Latin America was halted last year after U.S. missionaries were mistaken for drug carriers and killed.

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush is expected to approve the resumption of a program to force or shoot down airplanes suspected of ferrying drugs in Latin America, a year after the program was halted by the mistaken downing of a plane carrying American missionaries in Peru, U.S. officials say.

Once the president gives his final approval, the State Department would take over the program from the CIA, and U.S. officials said air- interdiction operations could begin in Colombia as early as this fall and would likely be expanded to Peru. The Pentagon would support the program as well, providing intelligence about suspected drug flights gathered from ground-based radar and other sources, officials said.

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LIMA, Peru -- Vladimiro Montesinos, once one of Peru's most feared men, was convicted Monday of usurping office - the first of more than 70 criminal charges ranging from arms smuggling to homicide that the ex-spymaster faces.

Montesinos, accused of orchestrating a vast network of corruption during former President Alberto Fujimori's rule, was sentenced to nine years in prison for seizing control of the National Intelligence Service while serving as an adviser to the agency.

The charge comes 19 months after a bribery scandal involving the former spy chief triggered the collapse of Fujimori's decade-long authoritarian rule.

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LIMA - Nearly one year to the day after his arrest following a continent-wide manhunt, former Peruvian strongman Vladimiro Montesinos was convicted of abuse of authority during his 10 years as security advisor to former President Alberto Fujimori.

A Peruvian court Monday sentenced Montesinos to nine years and four months in prison for illegally heading the National Intelligence Service under Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to November 2000, when he resigned. Montesinos was also fined approximately $2.85 million.

During the sentencing, the court said the 57-year-old Montesinos, who faces even more serious charges in dozens of cases, admitted that he had run the National Intelligence Service, even though he had never been officially named its leader.

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LIMA, Peru - Peruvian police said Monday they had broken up a major drug trafficking ring, seizing almost two tons of cocaine destined for the United States or Europe and arresting 27 people.

The gang was linked to Mexico's Tijuana cartel and had set up a fishing company in the Peruvian port of Chimbote as a front to smuggle the drugs to Mexico by sea and then on to Europe or the United States, Edy Tomasto, head of Peru's anti-drug police, told reporters.

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Peru expects the United States soon to announce it will resume a program to catch drug flights in the Latin American country that was halted after the shooting of an American missionary plane, officials said on Thursday, but Washington said no decision had been made.

"The information we have received from a good source is that a high- ranking US official is apparently set to make the announcement (to relaunch drug flights) on Monday," said Ricardo Vega Llona, who handed his job as Peru's first anti-drug "czar" to successor Nils Ericsson on Thursday.

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SANTA ROSA, Peru - Peru's counternarcotics efforts have eliminated 70 percent of the country's coca cultivation during the past seven years and have won praise from the Bush administration.

But far from the capital of Lima the reality is very different. Farmers in the mountainous high jungle are clearing land and planting coca fields faster than anyone can remember.

Demand and prices for coca leaves, which are used to manufacture cocaine, are on the rise and farmers here, as anywhere, know when to shift to better-paying crops. Adding to the rush to plant coca in Peru is growing U.S. counternarcotics aid to Colombia and a widening war there, which are reducing the supply of coca leaf in the country that produces the most.

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LIMA, Peru - The United States could flop in its fight to curb the drugs trade and the threat of terror if it does not soon open its market to select goods from the Andean region, which churns out almost all of the world's cocaine, Peru's top trade negotiator said on Wednesday.

"The biggest risk isn't that (Peru's) economy won't take off, but that drug trafficking and terrorism -- issues that the United States cares about -- get worse," Alfredo Ferrero, deputy minister for integration and international trade negotiations, told Reuters.

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The Text Of A News Conference Saturday With President Bush And Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo In Lima, Peru:

(Inaudible) ... of the United States of America, my good friend George Bush, Mr. secretary of State, members of the delegation of the United States accompanying President Bush, this (inaudible) representing a country with which we have had an historical relationship.

It is not a merely diplomatic visit, it is an official working visit. And we have touched on substantive issues which range from the open struggle against poverty, a war without border against terrorism and drug trafficking - I repeat, a war with no ambiguities whatsoever against terrorism and drug trafficking. We've touched on issues of trade, education, even the Peace Corps.

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LIMA, Peru - Extending a hand to a shaken nation, President Bush declared Saturday that the United States would work with Peru to fight terrorism wherever it occurs, saying that the two nations share a common perspective on the problem: "We must stop it.''

"Security is impossible in a world with terrorists,'' Bush said in a joint news conference with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. "Our nations understand that political and economic progress depends on security.''

Toledo, for his part, said he and Bush share "the energy and the stubbornness'' to combat terrorism without wavering. He called it "a war with no ambiguities whatsoever against terrorism and drug trafficking.''

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The U.S. Government Has Undermined The War On Terrorism In Peru.

Saturday, President Bush will visit Peru, to bolster the war on drugs and the war on terrorism. Congress has tripled antidrug aid to Peru this year, providing $156 million. Yet Peru's past and present troubles demonstrate how the war on drugs has undermined the war on terrorism and will continue to do so. The drug war has created an environment ripe for narco-terrorism, enriched insurgent guerillas, and hindered rather than helped Andean government anti-insurgency efforts.

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Excerpts of statements made by President Bush and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo during a news conference held in Lima, Peru, on Saturday, as reported by The Associated Press.

QUESTION: President Bush, you are in a region now that's been devastated by terrorism and subversion and drug trafficking for over three decades. You are offering us the Peace Corps. I would ask you if you're willing, as president of the most powerful nation on earth, to lead a Marshall Plan for South America?

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LIMA, Peru - Extending a hand to a jittery nation, President Bush declared Saturday that the United States will work with Peru to fight terrorism.

He said the two nations share a common perspective on the problem: "We must stop it."

In a joint news conference with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, Bush said: "Security is impossible in a world with terrorists. Our nations understand that political and economic progress depends on security."

Toledo said he and Bush share "the energy and the stubbornness" to combat terrorism without wavering. He called it "a war with no ambiguities whatsoever against terrorism and drug trafficking."

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LIMA, Peru -- Peru's economy is stumbling, and the president's popularity has plummeted. The war on drugs shows signs of stalling, and a long-dormant rebel group may be restive again, as evidenced by a bombing here on Wednesday.

But the government of President Alejandro Toledo is still viewed by the United States as democratic and reform-minded, a world away from the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori, who was toppled 17 months ago in a corruption scandal. Indeed, in many ways, Peru is better off than neighbors like Colombia, with its intensifying drug-fueled war, and Argentina, where default on a $141 billion debt brought down the government.

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The President Met With Leaders Of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador And Bolivia. Trade Also Was Discussed Yesterday.

LIMA, Peru -- Stringent security greeted President Bush yesterday as he met with Andean leaders in Peru.

Days earlier, a bomb had exploded in the Peruvian capital, across the street from the U.S. Embassy, and pushed terrorism to the top of Bush's agenda.

The President brainstormed with the leaders of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia about expanding trade, coordinating antiterrorism efforts, and curbing drug flows. But the Wednesday car bomb, which killed nine, put Peruvians and the U.S. government on edge.

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March 24, 2002 -- Peruvian riot police hunted down violent demonstrators who were protesting President Bush's trip to the South American country yesterday.

Police attempted to clear the streets of Lima before Bush's afternoon landing - firing tear gas to disperse crowds, taking sharp-shooting positions on roofs and rounding up more than 25 hostile lawbreakers.

The rioters, some of whom threw stones and crude explosives, chanted, "Bush, murderer! Get out of Peru!" and "Down with Yankee imperialism!"

Peruvian law enforcement has been on high alert after a car bomb killed nine people Wednesday outside the U.S. Embassy.

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U.S. And Peru To Work Jointly To Halt Terror

LIMA, Peru - Extending a hand to a shaken nation, President Bush declared Saturday that the United States would work to bolster "democratic foundations" in Peru as a means of fighting terrorism. He said the two nations share a common perspective on terrorist violence: "We must stop it."

"Our nations understand that freedom is only as strong as the institutions protecting it," Bush said in a joint news conference with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. "Our nations understand that political and economic progress depends on security."

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LIMA, Peru - President Bush and President Alejandro Toledo of Peru pledged Saturday to join in what Toledo called "a war without quarter" against terrorism and drug trafficking in the Andean region.

"We are partners not just through conviction," Toledo said at a news conference with Bush. "But we ourselves have experienced the effects of terrorism here for 20 years," including the explosion Wednesday of a 100-pound car bomb across from the U.S. Embassy that killed nine people and wounded 30.

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LIMA, Peru, - President Bush pledged today to help President Alejandro Toledo of Peru fight Marxist guerrillas on Peru's border with Colombia, saying that countering violence and drug trafficking in the Andes was crucial to maintaining the stability of the region.

"We will help him in this effort," Mr. Bush said at a joint news conference with Mr. Toledo at the Presidential Palace, only three days after a car bomb killed nine Peruvians outside the American Embassy. "That's part of the reason why I'm here."

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LIMA, Peru -- President George W. Bush visited this troubled Andean nation yesterday in an effort to show support for its recent return to democratic rule, and to strengthen ties with governments battling leftist rebels and drug traffickers.

Bush's visit, the first by a sitting U.S. president, came three days after a bomb shattered a street outside the U.S. Embassy, renewing fears of the kind of terrorism that ravaged this country in recent decades.

Bush arrived from stops in Mexico and El Salvador on a trip designed to demonstrate renewed U.S. interest in Latin America. In his 2000 electoral campaign, Bush had said Latin America should no longer be "an afterthought of American foreign policy" - but his first visit to this region had to be postponed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

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President Is To Arrive Today; A Scarcity Of Jobs Has Eroded Toledo's Ratings.

LIMA, Peru -- President George W. Bush's visit to Peru couldn't come at a better time for embattled President Alejandro Toledo.

After just eight months in office, Toledo's approval ratings have tumbled to below 30 percent as unions and grass-roots groups stage near-daily street protests against his government and the lack of jobs.

The panorama darkened considerably Wednesday night when a car bomb killed nine people in an outdoor shopping mall across from the U.S. Embassy - the worst terrorist attack here in five years. The tragedy heightened already brewing fears that the brutal Shining Path rebel movement was plotting a comeback.

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President Bush and President Alejandro Toledo of Peru pledged today to join together in what Toledo called "a war without quarter" against terrorism and drug trafficking in the Andean region.

"We are partners not just through conviction," Toledo said at a news conference with Bush. "But we ourselves have experienced the effects of terrorism here for 20 years," including the explosion Wednesday of a 100-pound car bomb across from the U.S. Embassy that killed nine people and wounded 30.

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Peru's drug lords are gaining ground, and so are rebels.

Toledo's Battle Against A Return To The Bad Old Days

Mario Ayala Otarola is running scared.

The mayor of San Miguel de Ene fled his isolated village in the jungles of eastern Peru last December. He had heard that a column of Shining Path guerrillas operating in the area planned to assassinate him. Three local mayors have gone into hiding after receiving death threats, and the rebels have warned employees of a U.S.-funded development project that they are under surveillance and should not interfere with local coca farming. "Either you're with Shining Path or you must leave the area," says the 50-year-old sesame farmer who escaped with his wife and five children. "The narcos and Shining Path are helping each other, and that puts us in great danger."

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Coca Crops Flourishing In Peru Production Soars Despite Efforts To Stop Growth

San Fernando, Peru - Fifteen years ago, government workers tore up Jorge Cotrina's coca plants in this fertile jungle hamlet in central Peru. But faced with plunging prices for his other crops, Cotrina a few years ago resumed cultivation of the plants that yield cocaine.

"If we didn't plant coca, we'd die," Cotrina said, gesturing at his hillside of coca plants. "I have five sons. If I didn't grow coca, who would pay for their food and shoes and clothes, and for seeds for my other crops?"

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is ``pretty close'' to resuming a suspended program to shoot down suspected drug planes in the Amazon, White House drug czar John Walters says.

Walters told the Mercury News Washington Bureau that U.S. officials may want to renew the program first in Colombia, then later in Peru, where a tragic accidental shoot-down over the Amazon River on April 20 killed a U.S. missionary and her infant daughter.

That fatal mishap forced the suspension of the program and led to at least two official U.S. investigations and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

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It Stopped After Missionary Was Shot Down In Peru In April.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is "pretty close" to resuming a suspended program to shoot down suspected drug planes in the Amazon, White House drug czar John Walters says.

Walters said U.S. officials may want to renew the program first in Colombia, then later in Peru, where a tragic accidental shoot-down over the Amazon River on April 20 killed a U.S. missionary and her infant daughter.

That fatal mishap forced the suspension of the program and led to at least two official U.S. investigations and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is "pretty close" to resuming a program to shoot down suspected drug planes in the Amazon, White House drug czar John Walters says.

Walters told Knight Ridder that U.S. officials may want to renew the program first in Colombia, then later in Peru, where a tragic accidental shoot-down over the Amazon River last April killed a U.S. missionary and her infant daughter.

That fatal mishap forced the suspension of the program and led to at least two official U.S. investigations and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

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TINGO MARIA, Peru -- The jungle-draped mountains that loom over this town in the Huallaga valley conceal a truth that anti-narcotics officials have been loath to admit.

After years of declining prices and production, coca crops are on the rise again in Peru. Even more worrisome to U.S. counternarcotics officials, Colombian drug traffickers are promoting poppy plants, the raw material of heroin.

"We are very concerned about poppy growth in this country. There seem to be numerous indications that there is a vast increase in the amount of poppy out there," Jim Williard said, gazing up at the mountain peaks above Tingo Maria, 200 miles northeast of Lima.

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Spectres Stir in Peru

Lima - Partly because of Plan Colombia, Peru's illegal drug industry is reviving. Meanwhile, Bolivians are protesting against drug eradication.

The harder you squeeze the illegal drug industry in one part of the Andean region, the more it balloons out elsewhere. That has been the experience over the past quarter-century of the United States' "war" against the production of cocaine and, more recently, opium poppies in the Andes. Over the past year, with much American help and money, Colombia's government has stepped up the eradication of drug crops. So it is not surprising that there are now clear signs of an increase in the production of coca (the shrub from which cocaine is extracted) and poppies (the source of heroin) in Peru.

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ACHICOTO, Peru -- His farm filled with money-losing crops, Francisco Torres had begun to despair that he could ever make ends meet in this green river valley in northern Peru. Then tens of thousands of acres of coca were eradicated in neighboring Colombia in a vast American-backed campaign of aerial fumigation.

The tightening supply has pushed the price of coca to new highs in recent months, drug market analysts say, making legitimate crops even less appealing while opening fresh opportunities for Mr. Torres and his neighbors. Now they are making more room for coca, a crop that Peru had made great strides in eradicating in the 1990's.

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LIMA, Peru - The United States will triple anti-drug funding to Peru, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday, ahead of President Bush's visit next month.

Ambassador John Hamilton told reporters that U.S. aid meant to curb drug production and trafficking will increase to more than $150 million in 2002, from about $50 million annually.

More than $80 million will finance alternative development programs that help farmers switch from coca, the raw material of cocaine, to other crops including coffee and cacao. The rest of the aid will support interdiction.

Peru is the world's second largest producer of coca.

[end]

The U.S. Halted Efforts Over Colombia And Peru After A Missionary And Her Infant Daughter Died In A Shootdown Last Year

WASHINGTON -- The United States hopes to complete a plan next month for resuming anti-drug surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia -- flights that could lead to the shooting down of planes flown by suspected traffickers, a State Department official said Wednesday.

The flights have been suspended since the Peruvian military mistakenly shot down a Baptist missionary plane last year, killing an American woman and her infant daughter.

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LIMA, Peru ---- U.S. officials continued working closely with Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos in the anti-drug fight despite an army officer's tip that he was involved with death squad killings, newly declassified documents show.

The officer, a self-described member of a military death squad, offered in 1993 to provide U.S. officials with information linking Montesinos to the group, according to a U.S. Embassy cable released Tuesday. The latest declassified reports provide the clearest indication yet that U.S. officials were aware early on that Montesinos, a key American ally in the drug war, was involved with a death squad.

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LIMA, Peru - Peru, the world's No. 2 cocaine producer, burned nearly 18,000 pounds of seized drugs on Wednesday with a street value of tens of millions of dollars, the Interior Ministry said.

Most of the pyre of drugs seized since December was made up of semi-processed cocaine. The remainder was marijuana and a derivative of poppies from which opium and heroin are made.

The ministry said in a statement the drugs would have fetched more than $5.8 million on the streets of Lima, $82.7 million in the United States, $206.7 million in Europe and $248 million in Asia.

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