Drug Enforcement Agency Cochabamba

The DEA Cochabamba Resident Office provides logistical, technical, and investigative support to five different Bolivian National Police Counter-Narcotics specialized units that are stationed throughout the Cochabamba region.  Office resources are directed toward joint investigations with these units and the Counter Narcotics Prosecutors Office. 

The Cochabamba Resident Office has responsibility for the Department of Cochabamba, which includes the Chapare region.   The Chapare region is an area traditionally used to cultivate illegal coca plants for conversion to cocaine base.  The cocaine base is generally smuggled out of the Chapare to Cochabamba or to Santa Cruz, where it is sent to Brazil or converted into Cocaine Hydrochloride (HCL) for export to other countries.  The Cochabamba RO has also seen transiting of Peruvian cocaine base through its Area of Responsibility.  DEA's rigorous and effective chemical control programs in the Chapare region have greatly reduced the availability of precursor chemicals necessary for the production of cocaine base and HCL.

The Cochabamba RO, under the congressionally funded Andean Ridge Initiative, continues to support the deployment of FELCN personnel into critical trafficking zones and the professional development of FELCN officials.