South American governments are deploying soldiers, drones, sniffer dogs, artificial intelligence, and expanded port surveillance to try to stem a record flow of cocaine, but the crackdown is having little impact as traffickers change up routes and tactics, according to a report by The New York Times. 

The Trump administration, which has made drug trafficking a central element of its Latin America policy, has struck dozens of boats off South America’s coast since last year after alleging they were carrying drugs to the United States, killing at least 177 people in the process, according to the report. But much of the cocaine reaching U.S. cities is transported to major ports in South America and then smuggled within legitimate cargo, such as orange juice or soybeans, or else attached to the hulls of freight vessels. 

After the White House’s maritime campaign began, traffickers began transporting cocaine through rainforests in Guayana and Suriname before shipping the drug out of less monitored ports in those countries, the newspaper said.  

“Criminal groups have made large investments in cocaine production,” Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on organized crime at the Brookings Institution, told the Times. “And they’re not going to just throw that away.”

Global cocaine production reached a record 3,708 tons in 2023, the most recent year available in U.N. data cited by the Times, while global use rose to 25 million people, up nearly 50 percent from a decade earlier. Seizures at major global ports have more than tripled over the last decade, a rise attributed partly to better policing but also to the growing volume of drugs being shipped, the report said. 

In Colombia’s Putumayo region, cocaine underpins much of the local economy because persistent poverty and limited legal employment leave many residents with few alternatives. A kilogram of cocaine can cost about $2,000 to make but sell for more than 20 times that in Europe or the United States, helping traffickers absorb losses when some shipments are seized, said the Times. 

Authorities say traffickers are also changing concealment methods to avoid detection, including hiding smaller quantities in cargo cooling systems and chemically infusing cocaine into materials such as leather, according to the report. In Santos, Brazil’s busiest port, agents recently intercepted 540 pounds of cocaine hidden in a container of soy oil bound for Portugal, the Times reported. 

The shifting tactics have fueled doubts about whether Washington’s boat strikes will significantly disrupt the trade. One former senior U.S. defense official described the approach as a “Whack-a-Mole strategy,” warning that those being targeted are often low-level operatives and that the campaign is unlikely to deter traffickers, the Times said. 

Read more at The New York Times