Covid-19 pandemic causes a major drop in the price of cocaine

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The kilo of cocaine cost $ 1,740 in January, and in April it is about $734

The price of cocaine in the Peruvian cocalero valleys where the drug traffickers and remnants of the Maoist guerrilla Sendero Luminoso illegally produce, fell 58% due to the world health crisis caused by the new coronavirus, authorities reported on Friday.

“It is reported that the price of cocaine in the VRAEM fell 58% due to the global health crisis ,  indicates a report by the National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (Devida).

The VRAEM is a strip of the Peruvian jungle that encompasses the Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Cusco, and Junín regions.

The kilo of cocaine cost 5,922 soles (about $ 1,740) in January, and in April it is at 2,426 soles (about $ 734), according to the report on the monitoring of prices of coca leaf and cocaine derivatives in Strategic Intervention Zones.

The report reports that the global health crisis has caused a 46% drop in the price of a kilo of coca leaf and the basic cocaine paste that fell by 51%.

Devida President Rubén Vargas on the organization’s website published:

“The vulnerability of this global illicit market due to the effects of the health crisis has been directly affecting the pockets of those who bet their resources on illicit crops”

The report includes the price situation during April with respect to January this year in VRAEM, Huallaga, La Convencion-Kosñipata, Puno, the borders with Colombia and Brazil.

In the VRAEM 24,000 hectares of the 49,000 illegal coca leaves that exist in the country are planted.

In Peru, the cultivation of coca leaves is legal up to a certain amount. This production has been destined since ancient times for traditional uses, such as infusions, however, some 11,000 tons of coca leaf has an illegal destination.

The Shining Path armed group was militarily defeated around 2000, but its remnants were located in the VRAEM, which is still considered a war zone.

Peru is, along with Colombia and Bolivia, one of the world’s largest producers of coca leaf and cocaine, according to the UN.

PRE CORONAVIRUS PRICES

Given this, the UN published a report on world drug use, supplementing it with a list of black market users in Havocsope and the World Drug Survey, we break down a list with the price in US dollars that the gram of cocaine has in different countries. Of course, the more industrialized the country, the gram is more expensive.

1-  Kuwait $ 330

2-  USA (between $ 300 and $ 62 depending on the state)

3-  Australia $ 300

4-  Japan $ 296

5-  Denmark $ 180.50

6-  Saudi Arabia $ 133.50

7-  Sweden $ 110.60

8-  Czech Republic $ 104.80

9-  Italy $ 91.60

10-   UK $ 61.50

11-   Holland $ 58.70

12-   South Africa $ 32.70

13-   Mexico $ 26.19

14-   Argentina $ 5.90

15-   Peru $ 4.50

16-   Bolivia $ 3.50

17-   Colombia $ 3.45

Production chain the South America-Mexico-United States

Cocaine is one of the most consumed and demanded drugs in the world and is derived from the Latin American harvest where, according to the UN Office on Drugs, cocaine producers in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico receive at least $ 1.30 for each kilo of raw material (coca leaf), while farmers receive $ 3 per kilo of raw material.

The fresh raw material collected in Peru and Bolivia is processed in Colombia where, on average, between 450 and 600 kilograms of coca leaf is required to make one kilogram, this means that the kilogram of the finished product is between 585 and 780 dollars, according to the quality of raw material.

According to the Colombian Police, the further the manufacturing process progresses and the further north cocaine is (near the US) its value is higher. In Central America, cocaine can be purchased at $ 10,000 per kilo, in southern Mexico, it costs 12,000, in central and northern Mexico its value increases to $ 16,000 and in border cities such as Tijuana or Ciudad Juárez the value skyrockets between 24 and 27 thousand dollars a kilo.

Now, when you reach the United States or Europe you can reach maximum prices of between 50 and 53 thousand dollars, in Australia, it costs 200 thousand Australian dollars per kilo. For individual consumers in the US, the gram costs between $ 300 and $ 62 depending on the state in which it is purchased and between $ 180 to $ 58 in Europe, according to research by Stanford Worldview.

Source: news.culturacolectiva.com, afp.com

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