On Tuesday, Peruvian government officials donned hazmat suits to burn approximately 7 tons of illicit drugs.
This included 6,270 pounds of basic cocaine paste, 7,900 pounds of cocaine hydrochloride, the purified chemical, and around 3,000 pounds of marijuana. The rest was opiates and poppy.
This is the first illicit drug burning for the country’s new government, according to a statement.
Peruvian Interior Minister Carlos Basombrío Iglesias was present for the event, walking with a face mask along rows and rows of plastic bags containing different varieties of drugs.
Peru, which produces primary materials for drugs such as the coca plant and the marijuana plant, is one of the main producers of cocaine.
In 2013, the United Nations named Peru the world’s top cocaine producer, a title it lost to Colombia in recent years. The coca leaf is the part of the plant that has been used by the people of Peru since ancient civilizations for medicinal purposes.
The Interior Minister broke down the numbers of what the drug would have cost had it reached world markets.
“Just to give you an idea, just on the burning of cocaine, if this drug had reached the US, it would cost $140 million. If it reached Europe, it would cost $218 million, and to Oceania would have cost almost a billion US dollars,” Basombrío Iglesias said.
The confiscation of the drugs has taken months. The National Police worked in different operations in several zones across the country between July and October.
Police General Vicente Romero Fernández said the police have also seized 64 covert airstrips.
According to the statement, this “act of incineration corresponds to the fourth process of the destruction of the drugs this year.” With the burn Tuesday, the total amount of destroyed drugs has reached 25 tons.