Cocaine smuggling and production at record high since pandemic retreat

A counter-narcotics officer runs through a coca field during a raid on a lab in Putumayo state, Colombia. Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP

South American drug cartels have capitalised on the retreat of the Covid-19 pandemic to produce and smuggle record amounts of cocaine around the world.

Production of coca, the drug’s base ingredient, spiked 35% in 2020-21, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).