Operation Snowcap

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Operation Snowcap (1987-1994) was an operation planned by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics Matters (INM) to help disrupt the growing, processing, and transporting of cocaine in Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile,Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico. It included the DEA and the U.S. Border Patrol.

According to the offical DEA description, Operation Snowcap had six general objectives:

(1) To encourage, through diplomatic efforts, coca source countries to participate in crop eradication.

(2) To suppress cocaine production through the destruction of clandestine cocaine laboratories and seizure of precursor chemicals, coca paste, cocaine base, and cocaine hydrochloride.

(3) To investigate and prosecute major cocaine trafficking organizations and to seize their assets.

(4) To support enforcement efforts against cocaine trafficking by providing timely intelligence.

(5) To increase personnel and financial and technical assistance dedicated to foreign cocaine enforcement programs.

(6) To improve domestic and foreign drug law enforcement officers' skills through training.