Colombia Producing Record Amount of Coke, Fed Report Shows

According to U.S. government estimates, Colombia produced 710 metric tons of cocaine in 2016, compared to 235 in 2013.

Colombia is experiencing the largest boom in cocaine history with more than 460,000 acres of land covered with coca plants, more than when Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel dominated the drug trade, The Washington Post reported.

The cocaine boom is in large part the result of the peace accord signed in November 2016 between the Colombian government and the far-left Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization. The deal ends a 52-year long war with the guerrillas agreeing to quit the drug business and help farmers switch to legal crops.

“But the cash benefits available through the peace deal appear to have created a perverse incentive for farmers to stuff their fields with as many illegal plants as possible,” The Washington Post noted.

“We’ve never seen anything like it before,” Luis Carlos Villegas, Colombia’s defense minister said.

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[For the record, there has been over $9 billion in U.S. assistance to Colombia since 2000, and the United States is Colombia's largest trade partner. --Editor]