South America’s major seaports are now sites of intensified security efforts aimed at curbing the flow of cocaine, involving armed soldiers, surveillance cameras, drones, sniffer dogs, and artificial intelligence technology. Despite these measures, authorities describe the effort as a continual and often ineffective game of cat and mouse, with traffickers quickly adapting to enforcement tactics. “We discover a route, and they’ll change to another,” said Rômulo Pereira Brandão Neto, a customs agent at the Santos port in Brazil, Latin America’s busiest.

The region faces an uphill struggle against well-funded global criminal networks that continue to expand cocaine production and distribution to meet surging demand. Cocaine production reached a record 3,708 tons in 2023, with Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru serving as primary producers. From there, the drug is transported via trucks, cargo vessels, and small aircraft to key ports such as Guayaquil in Ecuador and Santos in Brazil. Typically, shipments are concealed within legitimate cargo—including commodities like coffee, orange juice, and soybeans—or attached covertly to vessel hulls. Yet, authorities are able to inspect only about 2 to 3 percent of containers passing daily through these ports, limiting the effectiveness of interdiction efforts.

The United States has pursued a maritime campaign targeting boats suspected of carrying drugs along South America’s coast, destroying dozens of vessels since 2023. However, experts caution that much of the cocaine entering U.S. markets is trafficked not by small boats but aboard commercial cargo ships. The common routes now involve shipments moving across the Pacific Ocean to ports in Central America or Mexico before reaching the southern U.S. border. Traffickers have also forged alliances with Mexican cartels to facilitate these operations.

Former U.S. defense official Jana Nelson described the strategy of targeting vessels as a “Whac-a-Mole” approach that affects low-level operators rather than dismantling the higher echelons of trafficking networks. Following increased U.S. maritime strikes, traffickers shifted operations to less scrutinized routes, including rainforest pathways in Guyana and Suriname.

Alongside land and maritime interdiction, countries in the region have boosted cooperation with U.S. authorities. Colombia has intensified destruction of clandestine labs, particularly in the coca-rich Putumayo region, and Ecuador has launched joint military campaigns targeting cartel organizations labeled as terrorist entities by the U.S. Brazil, a key transit country for cocaine headed to Europe, has also increased surveillance and counterdrug operations at its extensive coastline and ports.

Despite growing enforcement, some experts highlight the economics driving the trade. A kilogram of cocaine costs about $2,000 to produce and can sell for over 20 times that amount in consumer markets. As Brazilian prosecutor Silvio Loubeh noted, traffickers can absorb significant losses in shipments so long as a fraction successfully reaches destination markets.

Traffickers are also diversifying destinations, increasingly targeting markets in Asia and Australia where law enforcement scrutiny is generally lighter and prices higher. The expanding global demand and sophistication of trafficking methods continue to challenge South American authorities’ efforts to stem the flow of cocaine, even as international cooperation intensifies.