CARTAGENA, Colombia — Every few days or so, a speedboat laden with a ton or two of cocaine launches from somewhere along this country's jagged Caribbean coastline, headed for a rendezvous in deeper waters.
There, the precious cargo gets transferred to a nondescript fishing vessel, which smuggles it into a port in Mexico, Haiti or elsewhere. Then the shipment hitches another ride, by sea or land, to its final destination: the streets of Los Angeles, New York and other U.S. cities, where it fetches about $100 per gram.
At times, Colombian and U.S. authorities are tipped off to a speedboat's departure by radar or other intelligence, and a joint operation to nab it can be mounted. But as often as not, under cover of darkness, fog or choppy waves, the boat slips through -- another battle lost in the government's war on drugs.
After several years and billions of American tax dollars spent fighting drug trafficking, cocaine is still making its way from Colombia to the U.S. in what appear to be hardly diminished quantities, throwing into question the efficacy of counter-narcotics efforts by both countries.
Drug runners have proved adaptable and clever in finding new routes for their shipments, the majority of which now go out by sea rather than by air or land, authorities say.
At the same time, a program that began five years ago to fumigate coca crops in Colombia, hailed by the Bush administration as a major success, appears to have had little effect on overall supply, judging by the availability and price of cocaine on the street. U.S. officials acknowledge that access to cocaine, its purity level and its street price remain virtually unchanged.
The dismaying results come as President Bush is requesting an extension for aid to Plan Colombia, a five-year strategy to combat narco-trafficking set to expire at the end of this year. The U.S. has already poured about $3 billion into the project, primarily to augment Colombia's fleet of military aircraft and ships and to train soldiers and police.
"The plan is producing results," Bush told reporters last month during a visit to his Texas ranch by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who asked for more money and support for Plan Colombia during a visit to Washington last week.
