Peru seizes cocaine worth US$70m

LIMA, Peru - Peru's anti-drug police have seized two tonnes of cocaine with a US street value of at least US$70 million ($104 million), one of the biggest hauls in recent years in the country, police said.

Police also arrested around eight men, including several Colombians and a Venezuelan, in a warehouse in the northern coastal city of Chiclayo.

A police official who declined to be named said the cocaine was worth at least US$70 million in the United States, "but probably much more, because this is pure cocaine".

The capture takes Peru's total drug haul so far this year to a record 10 tonnes, police said.

Peruvian officials say the successful US-backed eradication of coca, the raw material for cocaine, in top producer Colombia is driving traffickers into neighbouring Peru and pushing up production.

Peru produced some 160 tons of cocaine in 2004 -- 20 per cent more than in 2003 -- with a street value in the United States of US$2 billion.

- REUTERS