Russian officials have proposed holding joint operations against drug
trafficking with Colombia to staunch the growing flow of Latin American
cocaine to their country.
But no plans were set during a wide-ranging talk between Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and the Russian chief of the Federal Drug War Service, Víctor Ivanov.
“Lately we are seeing an increasing trend of cocaine traffic from Latin America,” Ivanov told Santos, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
The two discussed operations to cut the channels of transport from Colombia to Europe and Russia, specifically Colombian participation in the international anti-drug program ‘Channel’.
Exchanging staff representatives for training purposes was also discussed at the meeting.
Colombian authorities have seized more than 60 tons of cocaine, more than 100 tons of marijuana, nearly 2 million synthetic pills and around 300 kilograms of heroin in the last year.
But those figures are a drop in the bucket compared to official estimates that the country exports 750 to 800 tons on cocaine each year, the majority to the United States.
Russia is officially home to more than 500,000 drug addicts. It is believed two percent of Russians between 15 and 64 years of age consume narcotics.