The cocaine trade is far bigger and more geographically diverse than at any point in history as Albanian traffickers expand the market in Europe for the drug.

While identification often relies on leaf shape and size, this does not reflect differences between coca varieties grown for extracting the alkaloid cocaine (the active ingredient in the ...

Here they will turn the coca leaves into coca paste, a brick of dried powder that is just one stop short of pure cocaine. Small amounts of coca are legal for the indigenous who consider it a ...

Coca leaves, minus the cocaine, could become the next hot wellness trend. That's the bet that Pat McCutcheon, a former CEO of a Canadian cannabis company, is making with his new venture ...

Bolivia is pushing for the global decriminalisation of coca leaf – the main ingredient of cocaine – to export the plant and ease its economic crisis. But a "landmark" recent decision by the ...

Irish army boards cargo ship in drugs operation The majority of those seizures have been of cocaine - a powerful, addictive stimulant that is made through the leaves of the South American coca plant.

Coca leaves are the key ingredient in cocaine and Colombia has long been the top producer of the illegal drug. The area planted with coca bushes rose by 13%, and the biggest increase was recorded ...