Colombia to manually eradicate 12,000 acres of coca on Ecuador border .
Colombia to manually eradicate 12,000 acres of coca on Ecuador border .
Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:37 Katharina Wecker
Colombia's police started to manually eradicate coca plantations along the Colombian-Ecuadorean border on Wednesday in an effort to destroy 12,000 acres of coca cultivation.
Mobile eradication groups are focusing on the southern department of Putumayo bordering Ecuador, one of the areas with the highest coca cultivation in the country. According to the latest report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Putumayo together with the southern departments of Nariño and Guaviare account for 54% of total coca cultivation in Colombia.
The police aims "to destroy 12,355 acres of coca from today until October 15," said the head of the narcotics division of the National Police, Luis Alberto Perez.
"The departments of Putumayo and neighboring Nariño are (with 44,000 acres) the areas most affected by coca cultivation in Colombia because of drug traffickers who convert the coca leaves into cocaine," added Perez.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/25583-colombia-to-manually-eradicate-12000-acres-of-coca-on-ecuador-border.html