Aragoto Peru: Major Drug Trafficking Route to Ecuador and beyond

elcomercio.pe reported…Mention Aragoto in the province of Ayabaca (Piura) is like saying a forbidden name. Researchers eye perch upon which mentions it, through it’s entire body. People are put on guard. It is not common that unknown persons mentioned, loose bones, the name of a town that seems forbidden. One confused it with undercover COP or a drug dealer. “Why so much interest in Aragoto?”, asks the rider we transported by the village, located an hour from the city of Tayabamba. “We are college students and need to interview the authorities for a research paper,” respond you very serious.

Four years ago things were different in Aragoto. Now, since we left Ayabaca, shows the transformation. A paved road connects to both locations. Travel time has been reduced to one hour; before it was double. There are modern houses of two and three floors, with satellite phones; internet access and cable TV. Aragoto is no longer isolated from modernity, has joined it. The number of 4 x 4 trucks, including some with Ecuadorian plate, is what is most striking. Aragoto, and other nearby towns, are from the Decade of 1940 routes of passage of Basic cocaine paste (PBC) that comes from the Valley of the rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem), the Upper Huallaga and Ucayali.

According to the expert in drug trafficking Jaime Antezana, for this place and other routes in the Piura province, come out each year, 15 tons of cocaine hydrochloride. In the Northern macroregion also is planting coca, which then becomes in PBC. “Also being processed PBC in Cajamarca and Amazonas, which used the roads of the piuran mountains to leave for Ecuador and Colombia”, accurate Antezana.

According to intelligence of the National police, there are laboratories of refinement of PBC not only in Aragoto, but in the towns of Vado Grande, Remolinos y Mostazas. Laboratories like the four that were destroyed between 1998 and 2010, when was the last important intervention of the National anti-drug Directorate (Dirandro) border here.

Main roads used to take the drug to Ecuador – ensures the police–are found in Lagunas, Sicchez y Jililí districts.

Colonel PNP Santiago Quinones, head of the Department’s Counter narcotics tactical operations (Depotad) Piura, acknowledged that Aragoto and other areas of Ayabaca remain drug trafficking routes. The officer said that police intelligence work in the area. However, it’s been quite some time since it became the last major anti-drug operation in this town. Read Article

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