Weekly Report - 23 September 2003

In Peru, General Eddy Tomasto Pantigoso, head of the national police's antidrugs unit, reported days ago that his unit had seized 18 tonnes of drugs in the first eight months of the year. This included not only cocaine, but also opium and marihuana. The main intention was to illustrate how well the antidrugs effort was going, but the backdrop was that cocaine cultivation has been increasing since last year, for the first time since the mid-1990s.