Drug smuggling

Here's how drugs are getting smuggled from South America to the US

The cultivation of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, in Colombia spiked 134% between 2013 and 2016, after hitting a low in 2012.

That period also saw the two largest year-over-year increases in cultivation ever in Colombia — a 39% rise in 2014 and a 42% increase 2015.

Cultivation increased a little over 13% in 2016, but that growth brings Colombia to double the acreage under cultivation it had in 2012, its lowest point.

"This surge is very troubling and likely foreshadows an increase of importation, abuse, and overdose deaths in the United States," Anthony Williams, assistant administrator and chief of operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control on Tuesday.

Much of the cocaine from the region — Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru are the world's biggest producers — travels to the US, plying sea and air routes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, as shown by the map below, which was prepared by US Southern Command and displayed at the hearing.