CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - European and Colombian counter-narcotics officials say that Venezuela has become the path of least resistance for smugglers of Colombian cocaine. The drug shipments are flowing nearly unhindered from Colombia into Venezuela, then leaving by the ton on ships and planes making deliveries for the multibillion-dollar U.S. and European markets, the officials say. They say high-level corruption has also helped make Venezuela a major haven for drug smugglers running from the law.
| Anyone surprised by this? The Columbians, led by a legitimate President Uribe, have cracked down on the flights. So the nacro-traffickers head to a friendly Venezuela where Chavez is only too happy to take their money and provide them sanctuary. |
The cocaine passing through Venezuela on President Hugo Chavez's watch has risen by as much as 30 tons a year since 2002, reaching an estimated 300 tons in 2006, according to U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield. That's roughly a third of the world's supply. "Caracas is replacing Bogota (Colombia's capital) as a center of everything related to drug operations," said Mildred Camero, who was Venezuela's top anti-drug official until she reported high-level corruption and was dismissed in 2005.
Venezuelan airports have become such sieves that airborne smuggling - almost all of it from Venezuela - now accounts for about 30 percent of cocaine and heroin traffic out of the Andes, compared with 10 percent two years ago, said U.S. Adm. Jeffrey Hathaway, outgoing director of the multinational command that coordinates drug interdiction in the region. Of 46 suspected drug flights detected in the Caribbean by U.S. surveillance in the first four months of 2007, all but six originated in Venezuela.
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