WATCH: Cocaine worth R1.3 billion seized by police

Police in Peru seize more than two tons of cocaine valued at $90 million (R1.3 billion) that was to be transported to Belgium from the seaport of Callao. 

The drugs were found in a container filled with coffee, and were discovered by a police operation on Monday. 

Peru is one of the world’s largest producers of cocaine.

So far, no arrests have been made. 

Another day, another cocaine bust

Elsewhere in South America, joint military operations between the Americas and Europe resulted in 116 tons of cocaine being seized.

Operation Orion, which started in 2018, involved Colombia and 38 other countries in the Americas and Europe.

Colombian authorities confirmed the drugs were seized in air and land operations in waters of the Caribbean, Pacific and Atlantic. 

In total, 539 people of different nationalities were arrested, and 69 boats, three semi-submersible submarines and five aircraft captured.

Colombia is the world’s biggest producer of cocaine, derived from the coca leaf, ahead of Peru and Bolivia.

According to the United Nations, Colombia last year had 143,000 hectares of illegal coca plantations with the capacity to yield 1,228 metric tons of cocaine.

A recent UN report said nearly half of Colombia’s coca plantations in 2020 were in protected areas such as national parks or indigenous reserves.

And much of it was found in the restive border area with Venezuela, where armed groups and drug traffickers operate.

The United States, a major funder of the war on drugs, is the main consumer of Colombian cocaine.