Jakarta. Indonesia and major cocaine raw ingredient producer Peru are planning to wage war on narcotics in a document signed during Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s Jakarta trip on Monday.

Both countries have just inked a memorandum of understanding aimed at eradicating the production, processing, and distribution of narcotics. Signing the document were Indonesia’s National Anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN) and Peru’s counternarcotics policy agency DEVIDA.

“We have concluded an agreement on eradicating narcotics and [its] illegal trafficking. It has posed great danger for our countries,”  President Prabowo Subianto told a news conference at Jakarta’s Merdeka Palace on Monday.

Boluarte did not comment on the anti-narcotics cooperation during the presser. Her statement mainly focused on the freshly signed bilateral goods trade deal. She also looked forward to how Indonesia had finally let Peruvian blueberries enter its market, paving the way for greater fruit exports. Boluarte also invited Indonesian businesses to invest in Peru.

BNN has yet to provide any details of its latest anti-narcotics cooperation with its Peruvian counterpart. Indonesia has tough laws on drugs, even putting countless smugglers on death row. Indonesia has also caught some Peruvians in its anti-narcotics operations. 

In 2022, local authorities arrested a Peruvian woman seeking to smuggle 1.2 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil. The woman had just landed at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport at the time. The culprit also hid the drugs by swallowing the cocaine capsules. In 2019, a Peruvian man had to face 17 years in prison after bringing 947.5 grams of cocaine to the tourist haven Bali.

Peru, on the other hand, has quite lenient laws. The country does not punish anyone who possesses small amounts of drugs for personal use. Peru is the second-largest cultivator of coca leaf -- the base plant used in cocaine production -- just behind Colombia, according to the United Nations. DEVIDA reported that the land devoted to coca leaf cultivation in Peru jumped by 18 percent between 2021 and 2022, reaching an all-time high. Coca leaves are also legal for traditional purposes in the country. However, DEVIDA’s statistics showed that 90 percent of the 120,000 tons of the coca leaves grown in Peru went to illicit drug trade. 

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