Oruro. Shortly before the end of the year, Bolivian police seized 8.7 tons of cocaine while it was disguised in wooden floorboards and was traveling in a semi-trailer truck for shipment to Europe. It is the largest discovery of the substance in the history of the South American country.
President Luis Arce explained via his .
At a press conference, Government Minister Eduardo del Castillo explained that four days before the access, the authorities had “profiled the shipment and began” to monitor the activities of the company Maexa Srl. to investigate that organized the transport and export of the cargo. A total of two months of investigations took place.
Del Castillo explained that the drugs were supposed to have left Bolivia on board a truck through the Tambo Quemado border crossing. The goods were then supposed to reach the Netherlands via Chile, Peru, Panama and Belgium. The cocaine hydrochloride would have had a street value of $526 million there.
As part of the investigation, authorities said raids were carried out in various Bolivian cities in recent days and four people were arrested.
Those arrested include the driver of the intercepted truck, the owner of the company Maexa Srl. and the owner of the goods to be exported, all Bolivian nationals. There is also a Colombian citizen, a biomedical engineer specializing in resins, who is said to have “masked the wood with the illegal substances.”
Del Castillo finally explained that the drugs came from the department of Santa Cruz and that the investigation in this case will continue.
Since the Bolivian government under President Evo Morales expelled the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from the country in 2008, the US has questioned Bolivia’s commitment and capabilities in the fight against drug trafficking. Just last September, a memorandum from US President Joe Biden accused Bolivia, along with Myanmar and Venezuela, of failing to fulfill their international obligations to combat drug trafficking.
Bolivia firmly rejected this. Del Castillo explained at the time that “it is a one-sided document” that is not technically justified and does not respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bolivia.
Finally, Del Castillo pointed to his country’s successes in destroying cocaine laboratories. Now the government of the Andean country can point to another success that was achieved without involving the DEA.
The governments of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) have been campaigning internationally for years for the decriminalization of the traditional, cultural and medicinal use of the coca leaf and also see demand countries as responsible for combating the illegal drug.