Soaring cocaine crop ‘surprises and shocks’ UN

PRODUCTION of the raw crop that produces cocaine soared by more than a quarter in Colombia last year, mocking a multibillion-dollar US effort to eradicate it.

The increase in coca growth was “a surprise and a shock”, the UN said.

Colombia is the world’s leading cocaine-producer, but coca cultivation was also up 4% in Peru and 5% in Bolivia, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported in its annual survey.