The police officers discovered that acetone and sulfuric acid are being transported through Peru’s central Amazonian region, and during the operation, Peruvian authorities seized 680kg of cocaine paste, 65kg of cocaine and 1.3kg of marijuana.
National Police Director of Special Operations Abel Gamarra was reported by Xinhua as saying that the chemicals, which were labelled as fertiliser to throw off authorities, were valued at more than $110,000 and are in great demand by drug cartels.
The Peruvian authorities’ interception of the raw materials prevented drug traffickers from manufacturing more than $1m worth of cocaine destined for the international market.
The drug traffickers intended to use the chemicals to process 10 tonnes of cocaine paste, an intermediate step between mashing the coca leaves and processing pure cocaine powder, Gamarra added.