 | Seventeen years and US$10 billion after the U.S. government launched the counternarcotics and security package known as Plan Colombia, America’s closest drug-war ally is covered with more than 460,000 acres of coca. Colombian farmers have never grown so much, not even when Pablo Escobar ruled the drug trade. The cocaine market so saturated that prices have crashed and unpicked coca leaves are rotting in the fields. |  |
 | Colombia produced 710 metric tons of cocaine last year, according to U.S. government estimates, up from 235 metric tons in 2013. America’s drug fight has shifted to the opioid abuse crisis while U.S. cocaine use is soaring. American officials say the flood of cheap Colombian product is so large that it’s created its own demand. U.S. cocaine overdose deaths are at a 10-year high. |  Ecuadorean Prado Alava was responsible for trafficking 250 tons of cocaine |
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