The Public Ministry in Honduras said on Friday, February 16, 2024, that three blocks of coca leaf bushes were incinerated after being located in Iriona, Colón.
According to Sunrise House Treatment Center, which is part of a rehab community across the US, cocaine is derived from the coca plant of the type found by the Anti-Drug Trafficking Directorate and the Special Forces of the Honduran Armed Forces.
Regarding the making of cocaine from the coca plant, the Sunrise House Treatment Center said:
There are essentially three main steps to making cocaine.
After the leaves are harvested and soaked, the base for the powdered drug is extracted through one of two extraction methods, and the resulting crystallized substance is dried into bricks.
The Sunrise House Treatment Center added:
People who purchase cocaine off the street — which is essentially the only option that most users have — are rarely getting pure cocaine.
The drug is typically diluted with at least one foreign substance during the manufacturing process to increase profits, and additional substances may be added at every step of the distribution process. For example, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the typical purity of cocaine found in the United Kingdom in 2012 was less than 40 percent.
Some of the substances used to dilute cocaine, like baking soda, are essentially harmless, but other times, potentially harmful drugs, like levamisole, are added to the final product.
In the case of the three blocks of coca leaf bushes found by authorities in Honduras, authorities said that barrels were located in “a rustic building where the leaves of the hallucinogen were supposedly processed.”
The authorities noted that they are investigating the matter to determine who is responsible for the coca leaf bushes and “the alleged route they use to transport the base paste.”
