The head of the National Anti-Drug Office (ONA), General Alberto Matheus, assured this Friday that Venezuela is efficient in its anti-drug policy, despite being blocked by the United States.
He stressed that the agencies are aware of their role to prevent from using the territory to send drugs to the United States “nor to anywhere in the world,” he said.
Matheus specified that during this year they have seized more than 23,566 kilograms of drugs; 2,352 people have been arrested, 34 cocaine processing laboratories have been destroyed and 22 aircraft used by drug traffickers have been neutralized.
“From Washington they try, through a farce and a criminal conceptualization. to criminalize the Venezuelan state. The reports by the United Nations Organization demonstrate the contrary”.
In this regard, he cited figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that indicate that the United States is the main destination for cocaine shipments produced by Colombia.
“And its prevalence in increased amphetamine use has risen from 3 to 7 percent”.
The ONA chief mentioned that Colombia remains as the country with the highest drug production in the world.
“Venezuela, in the world report on drugs, is ranked fourth in drug seizures and fourth in the destruction of laboratories where cocaine hydrochloride is crystallized”.
He contested the United States’ accusations against Venezuela and indicated that the difference in the figures lies on when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was present in the country, and after its expulsion.
“From 1999 to 2004, the period the DEA was here, the average annual seizure was 34.94 tons of drugs. Once he left, we realize that in the next five years that average rose to 44 percent”.
He added that to date the seizure of narcotics has increased by 48 percent 15 years after the official withdrawal of DEA operations in Venezuela, he told the Xinhua Agency.
While the DEA was in the country, there was no arrest of any major drug trafficker. After the DEA left, we have captured 158 drug lords”, said Matheus.
The official detailed that, since 2012, 231 aircraft used by drug trafficking have been shot down and 14 years after the foundation of ONA, 537 clandestine runways have been destroyed.
At the same time, he said that ONA carries out activities in educational, labor and penitentiary centers and with an emphasis on the protection of children and adolescents.
