Colombia: US Report: Colombia Coca Production Surges to Record High

Jun 25, 2018 | Christine Armario, Associated Press
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The amount of land where peasants and drug traffickers harvest the plant used to make cocaine has surged to a record high in Colombia, a White House report said Monday, a boom that could further test historically close relations with the United States. Annual data for 2017 says coca cultivation rose 11 percent to 516,450 acres, a level unseen in more than two decades of record keeping and $10 billion in U.S. counter-narcotics work. Estimated cocaine production increased 19 percent to 921 metric tons.