TransnaTional organized Crime in CenTral ameriCa and The Caribbean
32
Focused law enforcement in Colombia has also reduced the
number of shipments departing directly from the country.
Shipments by air mostly take off just across the border, in
Venezuelan territory. Shipments by sea are increasingly
embarking from Ecuador on the Pacific and the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela on the Atlantic. Until 2009, a large
share of the flights were destined for the Dominican
Republic, but much of this air traffic appears to have been
re-routed to Honduras after 2007, particularly following
the Zelaya coup in 2009.
Today, in addition to many minor sub-flows, there are three
main arteries for northward movement of cocaine:
• Pacic shing boats and other marine craft, including
semi-submersibles, particularly destined for Guatemala,
supplying cocaine to the Cartel del Pacíco.
• Atlantic go-fasts and other marine craft, including some
semi-submersibles, particularly destined for Honduras,
to supply both the Cartel del Pacíco and the Zetas.
• Aircraft, departing from the border area of the Boli-
varian Republic of Venezuela, particularly destined for
Honduras, supplying both the Cartel del Pacíco and the
Zetas.
Much has been made of the use of self-propelled semi-
submersibles (SPSS), and there have indeed been some
spectacular seizures, including recent ones off the coasts of
Honduras and Guatemala. These devices began as
submersed trailers off other vessels that could be cut loose
in the event of law enforcement contact, but they have
evolved considerably since then. True submarines have also
been detected, causing considerable alarm. But while the
potential for profit is great, so are the losses when an SPSS
is detected, and the Colombian government alone has
seized at least 50 of them. In addition to the cost of the
vessel, an SPSS usually carries multiple tons of cocaine,
costing US$10 million or more in Colombia. And SPSS are
generally very slow, so while they are hard to detect, there
is more time to detect them.
First detected in 1993, seizure of these vessels appears to
have peaked between 2007 and 2009, and to have declined
since. The United States government notes a reduction of
70% in the estimated use of SPSS between 2009 and
2010.
32
It may well be that traffickers are returning to more
traditional methods of moving their drugs. Go-fast boats, a
perennial favourite, seem to be making a comeback along
both coasts.
The use of aircraft, previously largely reserved for short
hops to the Caribbean, has also increased. Light aircraft
such as the Cessna Conquest and the Beechcraft Duke seem
to be preferred, but larger aircraft have been detected. They
may make several short hops between remote areas in
Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala.
These areas are often not accessible by road, and so rely on
small airstrips or jetties for all contact with the outside
world. Using both light aircraft and go-fast boats, cocaine
can be moved northward in an endless series of combinations,
touching down in areas the police rarely visit.
Panama
It is very difficult to traffic large volumes of cocaine by land
from Colombia, due to the Darien Strip, a near-impassible
stretch of jungle between the country and Panama. To
circumvent this barrier, some traffickers make the short sea
voyage to Panama from the Golf of Uraba on the Atlantic
(about 55% of the detected shipments) or Jurado on the
Pacific (45%). Traffickers simply wait for a break in the
security patrols before making the trip, using a wide range
of sea craft. On the Pacific side, this can involve rather slow
artisanal boats. Loads are consolidated in Panama, often in
areas inaccessible by road, before being shipped further
north.
Those who ply this leg are mainly Colombians and Pana-
manians, transportistas handling the cargo of others. The
country serves as both a storage and re-shipment zone.
Authorities estimate that perhaps 5% to 10% of the cocaine
entering the country is consumed locally, but although
Panama has the highest adult cocaine use prevalence in
Central America (reported to be 1.2% in 2003), this is dif-
ficult to believe given the huge volumes transiting the
country. Authorities also say as much as a third may eventu-
ally make it to Europe, often flowing via the Dominican
Republic, although local police only detected five Europe-
bound shipments in 2011. The bulk proceeds northward.
Larger shipments from the Bolivarian Republic of Vene-
zuela and Ecuador also transit Panamanian waters. Panama
routinely makes some of the largest cocaine seizures in the
world. Between 2007 and 2010, around 52 tons were seized
32 Oce of National Drug Control Policy, Cocaine Smuggling in 2010.
Washington, D.C.: Executive Oce of the President, 2012.
Figure 23: Number of primary cocaine move-
ments destined for, or interdicted in,
Honduras and the Dominican
Republic, 2000-2011
Source: ONDCP
0
50
100
150
200
250
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Number of movements detected
Dominican Republic Honduras