In South America the major drug product is cocaine. Intensive policing of cocaine supplies has led to shortages, and subsequently to price increases. When prices rise, more people may be tempted to inject a drug in order to get maximum value for money.

The heart of the international cocaine trade is located in the Andean region of South America. Virtually all of the world's cocaine base, the intermediate product used to manufacture cocaine hydrochloride (cocaine HCl), is produced in Peru, Bolivia, or Colombia. Cocaine base production in Peru and Bolivia in 1995 represented about 90 percent of the world's cocaine base; the remaining 10 percent was produced in Colombia. Colombian traffickers were dependent on Peruvian and Bolivian sources for two-thirds of their cocaine base. Each year, hundreds of tons of cocaine base were imported by aircraft from Peru and Bolivia.

In 1997, Bolivia’s Government implemented the Dignity Plan, which has all but eliminated illicit cocaine cultivation in the Chapare jungle. Bolivia’s potential cocaine production decreased from 240 metric tons in 1995 to 70 metric tons in 1999. Additionally, laboratory analysis indicates that the purity of Bolivian cocaine has dropped significantly while local base prices have risen, an indication of reduced availability. Much of Bolivia’s cocaine is now believed to be either consumed in Brazil or shipped through Brazil to Europe.

In Peru, cocaine production decreased from an estimated 460 metric tons in 1995, to 175 metric tons in 1999. This was in part due to Peru’s air interdiction program, which shut down the cocaine "airbridge" between Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. This resulted in a drop in coca prices, taking the profitability out of coca cultivation. Since 2000 replanting has started again in previously abandoned fields causing speculation that coca leaf cultivation may be on the rise. In addition, since 1995 net coca cultivation in Colombia has more than doubled from 50,000 hectares in 1995 to 136,200 hectares in 2000.

Africa has also attracted the cocaine syndicates' attention. Nigerian trafficking groups are moving significant amounts of cocaine from South America to all parts of Africa. Because of the Nigerian role in the global movement of drugs, West Africa has become an important transit area for cocaine bound for destinations throughout Africa. Ghana seized more cocaine than Jamaica--over a quarter of a metric ton in the first nine months of 1996 alone--twenty times more than Ghanaian authorities had seized in all of 1995. Cocaine has also continued to enter South Africa in important quantities for consumption in the country and for shipment to other destinations in Africa and Europe. South African enforcement authorities are establishing working links with their Brazilian counterparts to help break up the Nigerian trafficking groups responsible for most of the cocaine flow into southern Africa.