More than 80 percent of the cocaine which is smuggled into the United States is transported through Central America, according to a 2013 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.
New commanders are responsible for squelching regional conflicts, many of which involve violence by street gangs and transnational organized crime groups.
In confiscating nearly 10 metric tons of cocaine, the country topped the record it set for seizures in 2012, when it nabbed around nine tons.
The police seized 19.2 tons of cocaine, 2.8 tons of marijuana, 70,000 crack rocks and 11,209 doses of ecstasy in 2013.
In one of the last operations of the year at the national level called “Gray Night”, carried out on December 19, the police arrested 46 members of a band of loan sharks.
Many aircraft that used to make the direct flight from Colombia or Venezuela to southeast Mexico can no longer do so. Aircraft loaded with hundreds of kilos of cocaine are landing in Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica.
The Central America country will expand its air and naval bases and has acquired new equipment, including a radar system to prevent drug smuggling.
Most of the displacement occurred in the departments of Narino, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Cordoba, and Antioquia.
Security forces located the small submarine on the coast near the town of Limones, in the province of Esmeraldas. The area is near the Colombian border.
Gangs are still predominantly male, but the number of women and teenage female gang members is rising.
Between January and June 2013, there were 323 women killed in Honduras, according to the Violence Observatory.
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