Bang. In January, Dirandro seized nearly three tons of cocaine in Callao. Photo: diffusion
The growing production of cocaine has stimulated the emergence of criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking on a large scale. The Coordination and Liaison Office of the Prosecutors Specialized in Illicit Drug Trafficking Crimes informed the Anti-Drug Directorate (Dirandro) that eight territorial prosecutor offices in the country have identified 65 gangs or family clans that are dedicated to the production and smuggling of basic paste and cocaine hydrochloride for export purposes in large quantities.
The report of the Coordination and Liaison Office of the Prosecutors Specialized in Crimes of Illicit Drug Trafficking It provides the names and surnames, or the nicknames of the bosses or the most important operators of the drug trafficking organizations, whose activities have been detected during the tax investigations that are currently underway.
The document you had access to The Republic It allows us to establish that drug trafficking operations cover a large part of the national territory and that it has increased its activities on the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia, to clear routes towards Europe where drugs are much more valued than in Europe.
“You are informed of the information synthesized by this office regarding the alleged leaders of clans and/or organizations that are engaged in drug trafficking activities in different parts of the country, data that was processed from the documentation sent by the Specialized Prosecutors for this specialized subsystem”, points out the Coordination and Liaison Office to the Dirandro.
However, the Coordination and Liaison Office of the Specialized Prosecutors for Illicit Drug Trafficking Crimes not only forwarded the information to the Anti-Drug Directorate, it also demanded immediate action. to dismantle the 65 criminal organizations or family clans that control drug trafficking in Peru.
“It is requested to adopt the corresponding actions so that, through coordinated work between the intelligence teams and the Specialized Anti-drug Prosecutors, they arrive to locate, identify and determine the illegal actions that are in progress, within the framework of the fight against drugs in the during the year 2023,” the report states.
Dejected. Edmerson Quispe Pariona, “El Chavo”. Photo: diffusion
According to the most recent figure from the White House Office of National Control Policy (ONDCP), the Cocaine production in Peru reached 785 tons in 2021.
However, an increase is expected, since in the valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem) rivers, where 40% of cocaine production is concentrated in Peru, coca leaf crops expanded by 15 % from 2020 to 2021. The second important area where more coca-growing areas have appeared is on the border with Colombia.
Coincidentally, in October 2022, The Republic ventured into the districts of Teniente Manuel Clavero and El Estrecho (Putumayo province, Loreto), verified that former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) recruit children and young people to harvest coca leaves destined for cocaine processing laboratories . Although they are paid for their work, they are kept locked up, under threat and forced labor conditions are imposed on them.
This newspaper also collected testimonies from leaders and members of indigenous communities in Putumayo on the violence perpetrated by former FARC guerrillas, and their drug-trafficking allies, who force them to carry out agricultural work in fields of coca leaf crops.
This would explain why of the 65 criminal organizations or family clans reported by the Coordination and Liaison Office of Specialized Prosecutors for Illicit Drug Trafficking Crimes, 15 operate in the Loreto Fiscal District (see infographic). Among those identified are groups of Colombians, as well as Brazilians, with whom they dispute drug smuggling.
Infographic – The Republic
The second Fiscal District with a significant number of large-scale criminal organizations operating in said area is ayacucho. The report indicates 10 clans. In some cases, these are gangs identified from drug seizures and the arrest of their members when they were transporting the illicit merchandise.
In the case of the Fiscal District of Cusco, there are 9 gangs or clans that are dedicated to drug trafficking, particularly in the area that includes Vraem, the province of La Convención.
It draws the attention of the authorities that important drug lords, such as Jorge Bazán Aguilar, “Gordo Tobi”, arrested during an anti-drug operation on June 27, 2022, was later released by court order. “Gordo Tobi” and four other accomplices were arrested near a beach in Máncora (Piura), trying to export more than 1.8 tons of cocaine collected from Vraem laboratories by sea to the Netherlands. The five are fugitives, most likely dedicated again to drug trafficking.
The Drug Prosecutor’s Office callao points to Edwin Lagos Ramírez, “JL”, as one of the most important operators in the port of Chalaco.
Another character identified is Emerson Quispe Pariona, “El Chavo”, a drug producer in Vraem and its exporter through the port of Callao, according to the fiscal report. On January 20 of this year, as a result of disputes with other drug trafficking organizations, “El Chavo” was ambushed and riddled with bullets by his opponents, in a Pichari community.
For anti-drug authorities, in family clans, when the leader dies or is imprisoned, his next of kin take his place to continue the production of cocaine for export.
“Fat Toby.” Jorge Bazán Aguilar, fugitive. Flores Clan. Juan Flores Villar escaped to Bolivia. “Schumacher”. Cusco boss Mike Flores Navarro. Photo: composition LR
The prosecutor’s report also refers to a drug trafficking organization led by a Serbian citizen. It would be David Cufaj. On August 11, 2022, members of the Cufaj gang were intervened by Dirandro agents when they tried to ship 43 kilos of cocaine to Europe. For authorities, the case of Serb Cufaj confirms that drug lords serving prison terms continue to run cocaine export operations.
That drug traffickers linked to drug producers in Vraem have turned Callao into one of their most prominent shipping ports for large amounts of cocaine, is proven by the fact that the anti-drug police force intervened 4 tons in a Chalaco warehouse, in the human settlement Colonel Francisco Bolognesi, behind the Jorge Chávez international airport, on January 8 of this year.
The favorite modality of the mafias
Drug trafficking organizations have developed different ways of shipping drugs in huge quantities to Europe. International gangs hire divers who belonged to the Navy to infiltrate packages of cocaine into the cracks of the ships. These same people then travel to the European ports where the ship calls, and proceed to recover the caches.
In 2020, in the port of Avilés, in Asturias (Spain), three Peruvian “narcodivers” were surprised by the local police when they were recovering caches of close to 100 kilos of cocaine from a merchant ship that left Callao.
In the case of the “Gordo Tobi” capo, he tied several briefcases with 1.8 tons of cocaine with ropes in the vicinity of Máncora. With a boat he intended to take the merchandise to the high seas, where a ship would pick it up to transfer the drug to Europe.