Whack-a-mole Drug War: Latin American Cocaine Trade Persists Despite Gains Made by U.S. Efforts

The U.S. Air Force asked for this study. We wonder what the DEA and the "drug czar" think of the answer.

Latin American Cocaine Trade Persists Despite Gains Made by U.S. Efforts | RAND: "Efforts by the United States to combat Latin American cocaine smugglers have disrupted drug supplies and captured key cartel leaders, but they have not significantly reduced the region's overall narcotics trade, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The number of drug players operating in Colombia, the world's chief supplier of refined cocaine, has not declined. The drug trade also has undermined national stability and security in Mexico, according to the report.

Moreover, while U.S. interdiction has disrupted traditional drug smuggling routes through the Caribbean, syndicates have developed new shipment corridors in the Pacific and the Atlantic.

'American enforcement measures have had notable successes against the Latin American cocaine trade, but the effort has had little impact on the amount of illicit drugs that are reaching the United States,' said Peter Chalk, the study's author and a senior political scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. ...

Chalk makes several recommendations for the U.S. Air Force, which sponsored the study, including improved aerial surveillance over the Pacific-Central American corridor and ensuring protection of existing counter-drug access arrangements in Central America."