Drug War Facts

Interdiction

  1. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "[T]he value of the global illicit drug market for the year 2003 was estimated at US$13 bn [billion] at the production level, at $94 bn at the wholesale level (taking seizures into account), and at US$322bn based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account. This indicates that despite seizures and losses, the value of the drugs increase substantially as they move from producer to consumer."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), World Drug Report 2005 (Vienna, Austria: UNODC, June 2005), p. 127.

  2. Interdiction efforts intercept 10-15% of the heroin and 30% of the cocaine. Drug traffickers earn gross profit margins of up to 300%. At least 75% of international drug shipments would need to be intercepted to substantially reduce the profitability of drug trafficking.

    Source: Associated Press, "U.N. Estimates Drug Business Equal to 8 Percent of World Trade," (1997, June 26).

  3. "Global seizures of opiates reached 120 metric tons in 2004 (+ 9 per cent compared to 2003). Increases were particularly strong in South-East Europe (+109 per cent) reflecting the resumption of large-scale trafficking along the Balkan route. Highest seizures were reported by Iran, followed by Pakistan and China. The largest heroin seizures were reported from China (10.8 metric tons). The estimated global interception rate for opiates was 24 per cent of global production, a clear increase from the 10 percent recorded 10 years earlier."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 14.

  4. "In 2005, the estimated area under illicit opium poppy cultivation in the world decreased by 22 per cent (from 195,940 hectares to 151,500 hectares) due to lower cultivation in the three main source countries of illicit opium in the world: Afghanistan, Myanmar and Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Global opium production was estimated at 4,620 metric tons of which 4,100 metric tons (89 per cent) were produced in Afghanistan."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 11.

  5. "The potential production of cocaine reached 910 metric tons in 2005, about the same as a year earlier. Potential production in Colombia amounted to 640 metric tons, in Peru to 180 metric tons and in Bolivia to 90 metric tons. The level of overall production is practically unchanged from the levels of a decade ago."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 82.

  6. "Cocaine seizures increased to 588 metric tons in 2004, an 18 per cent increase and the highest figure ever recorded. This followed an increase in global cocaine seizures of 34 per cent in 2003."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 16.

  7. "For the third year in a row, Colombia seized most cocaine in the world (almost 188 metric tons), 32 per cent of the world total and an increase of 29 per cent compared to 2003. The second largest seizures were reported from the United States (166 metric tons, 28 per cent of the world total). In Ecuador, there has been a 9-fold increase in seizures (5 metric tons in 2004, 44 metric tons in 2005).
    "European cocaine seizures were close to 80 metric tons in 2004 and about 100 metric tons in 2005. Over the 1994-2004 period they increased by, on average, 10 per cent per year."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 17.

  8. "The rising importance of Africa, and notably of West Africa, as a transit point for cocaine shipments destined for European markets is becoming more evident. Seizures made in Africa increased more than three-fold in 2004 with seizures in West and Central Africa increasing more than six-fold. Most of this cocaine is destined for Spain and Portugal for onward shipment to other European countries. Largest seizures over the 2000-2004 period in Africa were made in Cape Verde, followed by South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Despite this increase, African seizures still account for less than 1 per cent of global cocaine seizures but there are indications that only a very small proportion of cocaine transiting the African continent is actually seized."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 17.

  9. "The world's main cocaine trafficking routes continue to run from the Andean region, notably Colombia, to the United States. The trafficking patterns analysis of the Colombian authorities revealed that more than half of the country's seizures took place at the ports; with 60 per cent of the cocaine leaving the country via the Pacific coast and 40 per cent via the Atlantic coast in 2004. According to the United States Interagency Assessment of Cocaine Movement, half of the cocaine trafficked towards the United States in 2004 transited the Eastern Pacific, whereas 40 per cent were trafficked through the Western Caribbean."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 87.

  10. "The main intermediate target country of cocaine shipments from Colombia is Mexico. Mexico reports that, about 55 per cent of the cocaine is trafficked to Mexico by sea, another 30 per cent by land from Central America (Guatemala and Belize) and some 15 per cent comes by air. The direction of cocaine trafficking within Mexico is from the southern parts of the country to the northern border. In volume terms, most cocaine shipments are primarily by sea; in terms of trafficking operations, however, most cocaine deliveries are by land."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 87.

  11. "In the past, 30-50 per cent of the cocaine entered the USA directly via the Caribbean. For 2004, however, the United States Interagency Assessment of Cocaine Movement concluded that this proportion had fallen to below 10 per cent. The main smuggling vectors via the Caribbean in 2004 concerned Haiti and the Dominican Rep (2%), Jamaica (2%) and Puerto Rico (1%). The United States report that about 12 per cent of all cocaine entered the country by air in 2004. In contrast to the situation in the 1980s, direct shipments by air from Colombia are no longer very common."

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis" (United Nations: Vienna, Austria, 2006), p. 88.

  12. "As far as trafficking is concerned, a comparison with the interception rate of opiates in 1998 (17%), makes the interception rate of 46% reported for cocaine for the same year appear extremely high. Assuming a similar volume of seizures in 1999, the rate would be even higher (50%). For the reasons mentioned above, there are thus some doubts about the accuracy of the total potential cocaine production reported during the past few years (765 mt in 1999).
    "Based on seizures and comsumption estimates, UNDCP considers that production might in fact be closer to 1,000 tons."
    (In other words, governments make lowball estimates of cocaine production in order to look good.)

    Source: United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Global Illicit Drug Trends 2000 (New York, NY: UNDCP, 2000), p. 32.

  13. Thirteen truck loads of cocaine is enough to satisfy U.S. demand for one year. The United States has 19,924 kilometers of shoreline, 300 ports of entry and more than 7,500 miles of border with Mexico and Canada. Stopping drugs at the borders is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

    Source: Frankel, G., "Federal Agencies Duplicate Efforts, Wage Costly Turf Battles," The Washington Post (June 8, 1997), p. A1; Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook 1998, 1998.

  14. One of the major problems with supply reduction efforts (source control, interdiction, and domestic enforcement) is that "suppliers simply produce for the market what they would have produced anyway, plus enough extra to cover anticipated government seizures."

    Source: Rydell, C.P. & Everingham, S.S., Controlling Cocaine, Prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Army (Santa Monica, CA: Drug Policy Research Center, RAND, 1994), p. 6.

  15. To achieve a one percent reduction in U.S. cocaine consumption, the United States could spend an additional $34 million on drug treatment programs, or 23 times as much -- $783 million -- on efforts to eradicate the supply at the source.

    Source: Rydell & Everingham, Controlling Cocaine (Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation, 1994).

  16. "Despite 2 years of extensive herbicide spraying [source country eradication], U.S. estimates show there has not been any net reduction in [Colombian] coca cultivation - net coca cultivation actually increased 50 percent."

    Source: US General Accounting Office, Drug Control: Narcotics Threat from Colombia Continues to Grow (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1999), pgs. 2.

  17. In spite of US expenditures of $625 million in counter narcotics operations in Colombia between 1990 and 1998, Colombia was able to surpass Peru and Bolivia to become the world's largest coca producer. Additionally, "there has not been a net reduction in processing or exporting refined cocaine from Colombia or in cocaine availability within the United States."

    Source: US General Accounting Office, Drug Control: Narcotics Threat from Colombia Continues to Grow (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1999), pp. 3, 4, 6.

  18. "... While two major groups (the Medellin and Cali cartels) dominated drug-trafficking activities during the late 1980s and early 1990s, today there are hundreds of smaller and more decentralized organizations. These groups are now capable of producing 'black cocaine' that hinders detection and are improving their transportation capabilities by manufacturing boats capable of carrying up to 2 tons of cocaine at high speeds."

    Source: US General Accounting Office, Drug Control: Narcotics Threat from Colombia Continues to Grow (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1999), pp. 4-5.

  19. Black cocaine is created by a chemical process used by drug traffickers to evade detection by drug sniffing dogs and chemical tests. The traffickers add charcoal and other chemicals to cocaine, which transforms it into a black substance that has no smell and does not react when subjected to the usual chemical tests.

    Source: US General Accounting Office, Drug Control: Narcotics Threat from Colombia Continues to Grow (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1999), p. 5.

 

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