WASHINGTON (CMC):

The United States Coast-guard says that illicit trafficking in cocaine is seemingly shifting from the Caribbean to the Pacific, as it announced record seizures this year.

"We have forced them to adapt to routes that are dangerous and are expensive," said Coastguard Commander Bob Watts in announcing the record annual cocaine seizures worth more than US$4.7 billion.

Watts said the coastguard captured 355,755 pounds (161,368 kg) of cocaine in the past year, and that the largest seizure was 20 tons (18.1 metric tons) discovered aboard a Panamanian vessel in March.

Watts said because of the coastguard's increased surveillance in the Caribbean Sea, smugglers are turning to "riskier tactics" in trying to evade interdiction, including dissolving cocaine in diesel fuel.

He said they have also been forced to turn to the more expensive and arduous Pacific Ocean routes, including via the Galapagos Islands, since most of the major routes via the Caribbean Sea have been shut down.

Africa

Watts said Africa is increasingly being used as a trans-shipment route to the drug market in Europe.

"Right now, we're seeing guys get in go-fasts and running 1,000 miles into the Pacific and rounding the Galapagos Islands to come in," he added.

"The fact that we're forcing them to do that is causing them angst, it's causing them pain.

"It is much of a win to me on the strategy side as getting the dope," Watts said.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine, followed by neighbours Peru and Bolivia.

The United States has bilateral agreements with 26 Caribbean and South American countries that permit its coastguard vessels to operate outside U.S. territorial waters in an effort to interdict smugglers in foreign-flag vessels.