Cocaine Traffickers Look To Booming Brazil, As Consumption Declines In The United States

A New Destination For Cocaine Traffickers
In this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo, right, buys crack, right hand, and cocaine on the street in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo, who says, "I work to support my addiction, but I only use crack at night. That drug takes my mind away; I lose all notion of what I'm doing,"spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack. With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to help such users and stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
In this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo, right, buys crack, right hand, and cocaine on the street in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo, who says, "I work to support my addiction, but I only use crack at night. That drug takes my mind away; I lose all notion of what I'm doing,"spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack. With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to help such users and stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

GUAJARA-MIRIM, Brazil The jungle frontier between Brazil and Bolivia is longer than the U.S.-Mexico border, but on a recent day the task of stemming the cocaine that counterdrug officials say is flooding the country fell to a handful of Brazilian policemen.

In tiny border hamlets, the officers made their rounds, urging villagers to report what they’ve seen. In a speedboat, others patrolled the Mamore River separating the two countries, guessing which of the countless motorized canoes was carrying drugs bound for Brazil’s big cities.

Before You Go

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