In Rio de Janeiro, police say such weapons can fetch up to 10 times those values.
“Here you pay 3 to 3,500 dollars per kilogram [of cocaine],” Baez said. “In Europe this cocaine is worth US$30,000 or US$40,000.”
So far this year Figueredo has recorded nearly 80 homicides, making Pedro Juan Caballero statistically one of the most murderous towns on Earth, with a homicide rate that is more than three times that of Rio de Janeiro.
Ramirez said the only solution was for Latin American leaders to rethink their drug laws.
“Cocaine is a lost war — the way we are fighting it. Brazil spends trillions and can’t solve the problem of the favelas. Mexico spends even more and they have lost control. As long as people can make millions out of cocaine, repression will not solve the problem,” Ramirez says.
RSS