Coca Plant

There are more than 250 varieties of the coca plant, but only three are widely used in the illegal cocaine drug trade: * Huanuco coca, grown in Bolivia and Peru * Amazonian coca, grown in the Amazon River basin * Colombian coca, grown primarily in Colombia.

Colombian drug traffickers are responsible for most of the world’s cocaine base production, cocaine hydrochloride (HCl), and wholesale cocaine HCl distribution. While Colombia has long held the dubious honor of being the world’s largest producer of cocaine HCl, Colombia’s role as the world’s largest producer of cocaine base is relatively new. As a result of substantial increases in the size of Colombia’s domestic coca crop, Colombia is now the source of nearly 74 percent of the world’s cocaine base.