Coca, the raw material for cocaine, continued to spread throughout Colombia in 2005, penetrating into the heart of some of the world’s most fragile and biodiverse ecosystems, according to reports released by two drug control agencies. Despite the aerial fumigation of nearly 346,000 acres (140,000 has), a record high, the area covered by coca crops expanded 26% in Colombia last year, according to a report released in March by the U.S. State Department’s Office of National Drug Control Policy. A second report, released last month by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), estimates the increase at 8%. Drug experts described as especially worrisome the spread of coca in the northwestern state of Chocó, the southeastern department of Vichada and the southern department of... [Log in to read more]