Thanks to a recent agreement between Peru and Bolivia to work jointly against narco-trafficking and other criminal activities along their common border, naval vessels from both countries will use a sophisticated satellite system to detect drug shipments in Lake Titicaca, which straddles both nations.
Thanks to a recent agreement between Peru and Bolivia to work jointly against narco-trafficking and other criminal activities along their common border, naval vessels from both countries will use a sophisticated satellite system to detect drug shipments in Lake Titicaca, which straddles both nations.
Beginning in 2015, drug interdiction operations on Lake Titicaca will be coordinated by the naval and police forces of the two nations. The satellite system allows police and military officials to monitor activity on the lake 24 hours a day.
Liaison officers from both countries will cooperate in each drug interdiction mission, while anti-drug police from Bolivia and Peru will team up to process the coordinates of suspicious vessels on the lake.
Interdictions will be conducted by vessels from the Peruvian and the Bolivian navies, with support from the air forces of the two countries. A fleet of Bolivian Super Puma
In the long run, this close cooperation will help both countries.
“Experience has shown us that when two countries combine their intelligence systems, operational forces, and political decisions, the results improve,” according to Alberto Otárola Peñaranda, Executive Director of the Peru-based National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs (DEVIDA), as reported by EjuTv
website.
“This type of cooperation between countries is positive. Peru and Bolivia are making a big effort in trying to close the cocaine air route,” said César Ortiz Anderson, President of Peru’s Pro-Citizen Security Association (APROSEC).
Agreement also calls for eradication efforts
Officials from the two countries, including Otárola and Felipe Cáceres, the Bolivian vice minister of social defense and controlled substances, signed the agreement during the fourth meeting of the Peruvian-Bolivian Combined Commission on November 11 in Lima, Peru.
It calls for the security forces of the two countries to cooperate in eradicating illegal crops which some farmers grow in the border region. The illegal coca is the primary ingredient in the production of cocaine.
Beginning in 2015, the military and police forces of the two countries will focus their eradication efforts in Bolivian border communities such as Apolo and San Fermín, and the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers Valley (VRAEM) region on the Peruvian side.
“Specific measures will be taken in these areas so that the police forces of both countries can intervene jointly and avoid the escape of drug traffickers from one side of the border into the other,” said Otárola.
Both countries have made progress in eradicating illegal coca crops in recent years.
Since 2010, Bolivia has reduced the number of hectares used to cultivate illegal coca from 34,500 hectares to 23,200 hectares, according to a press release from the Vice Ministry of Social Defense on November 18.
The Peruvian government has already exceeded its goal of eradicating 30,000 hectares of illegally cultivated coca in 2014. At the end of November, Peruvian police and military forces had destroyed more than 30,300 hectares of illegally cultivated coca.
Providing alternatives to the farmers who have been cultivating illegal coca is important. To address that issue, the bilateral meeting on November 11 also established working groups for cooperation in the area of comprehensive and sustainable alternative development, prevention of consumption, rehabilitation, and control of illegal drug trafficking and associated crimes.
Fighting aerial drug trafficking
The accord is not limited to cooperation on land and on the waters of Lake Titicaca. It also calls for the security forces of the two nations to share intelligence to shut down aerial routes used by drug traffickers who cross the border shared by Peru and Bolivia.
Drug traffickers have established an air corridor between the two nations to evade the law and transport the drug to the markets of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, according to La Razón
newspaper.
Under the agreement, the two countries have committed to “double our efforts for the establishment and implementation of much more effective mechanisms in the exchange of information and intelligence using aerial sensors to detect unsupervised aerial spaces,” said Cáceres.
Drug traffickers use aerial routes to transport cocaine from Peru, the world’s largest producer of the drug, to Brazil, the world’s second-largest consumer market. Law enforcement authorities estimate that as much as 90 percent of the 200 tons of cocaine which are trafficked out of the VRAEM region each year are transported by narco-flights, according to insightcrime.org .
The accord “is a milestone on real binational cooperation aimed at strengthening security,” Cáceres said during the signing ceremony. “The operations against drug trafficking carried out by military and police forces will have positive results.”
Thanks to a recent agreement between Peru and Bolivia to work jointly against narco-trafficking and other criminal activities along their common border, naval vessels from both countries will use a sophisticated satellite system to detect drug shipments in Lake Titicaca, which straddles both nations.
Beginning in 2015, drug interdiction operations on Lake Titicaca will be coordinated by the naval and police forces of the two nations. The satellite system allows police and military officials to monitor activity on the lake 24 hours a day.
Liaison officers from both countries will cooperate in each drug interdiction mission, while anti-drug police from Bolivia and Peru will team up to process the coordinates of suspicious vessels on the lake.
Interdictions will be conducted by vessels from the Peruvian and the Bolivian navies, with support from the air forces of the two countries. A fleet of Bolivian Super Puma
In the long run, this close cooperation will help both countries.
“Experience has shown us that when two countries combine their intelligence systems, operational forces, and political decisions, the results improve,” according to Alberto Otárola Peñaranda, Executive Director of the Peru-based National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs (DEVIDA), as reported by EjuTv
website.
“This type of cooperation between countries is positive. Peru and Bolivia are making a big effort in trying to close the cocaine air route,” said César Ortiz Anderson, President of Peru’s Pro-Citizen Security Association (APROSEC).
Agreement also calls for eradication efforts
Officials from the two countries, including Otárola and Felipe Cáceres, the Bolivian vice minister of social defense and controlled substances, signed the agreement during the fourth meeting of the Peruvian-Bolivian Combined Commission on November 11 in Lima, Peru.
It calls for the security forces of the two countries to cooperate in eradicating illegal crops which some farmers grow in the border region. The illegal coca is the primary ingredient in the production of cocaine.
Beginning in 2015, the military and police forces of the two countries will focus their eradication efforts in Bolivian border communities such as Apolo and San Fermín, and the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers Valley (VRAEM) region on the Peruvian side.
“Specific measures will be taken in these areas so that the police forces of both countries can intervene jointly and avoid the escape of drug traffickers from one side of the border into the other,” said Otárola.
Both countries have made progress in eradicating illegal coca crops in recent years.
Since 2010, Bolivia has reduced the number of hectares used to cultivate illegal coca from 34,500 hectares to 23,200 hectares, according to a press release from the Vice Ministry of Social Defense on November 18.
The Peruvian government has already exceeded its goal of eradicating 30,000 hectares of illegally cultivated coca in 2014. At the end of November, Peruvian police and military forces had destroyed more than 30,300 hectares of illegally cultivated coca.
Providing alternatives to the farmers who have been cultivating illegal coca is important. To address that issue, the bilateral meeting on November 11 also established working groups for cooperation in the area of comprehensive and sustainable alternative development, prevention of consumption, rehabilitation, and control of illegal drug trafficking and associated crimes.
Fighting aerial drug trafficking
The accord is not limited to cooperation on land and on the waters of Lake Titicaca. It also calls for the security forces of the two nations to share intelligence to shut down aerial routes used by drug traffickers who cross the border shared by Peru and Bolivia.
Drug traffickers have established an air corridor between the two nations to evade the law and transport the drug to the markets of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, according to La Razón
newspaper.
Under the agreement, the two countries have committed to “double our efforts for the establishment and implementation of much more effective mechanisms in the exchange of information and intelligence using aerial sensors to detect unsupervised aerial spaces,” said Cáceres.
Drug traffickers use aerial routes to transport cocaine from Peru, the world’s largest producer of the drug, to Brazil, the world’s second-largest consumer market. Law enforcement authorities estimate that as much as 90 percent of the 200 tons of cocaine which are trafficked out of the VRAEM region each year are transported by narco-flights, according to insightcrime.org .
The accord “is a milestone on real binational cooperation aimed at strengthening security,” Cáceres said during the signing ceremony. “The operations against drug trafficking carried out by military and police forces will have positive results.”