Peruvian authorities transported four tonnes of liquid cocaine to Lima on Monday (October 14) after anti-narcotics officials with the support of U.S. drugs agents seized a huge drugs haul and arrested 16 suspected international traffickers in a series of raids in north-western Peru, according to officials.

According to the El Comercio daily, Peru's elite Dirandro narcotics unit, supported by the U.S. Drugs Enforcement Agency, netted the containers of liquid cocaine following a two-year operation that took authorities to the Peruvian port of Paita.

The drugs were destined to be shipped to Europe where cocaine is estimated to fetch up to $50,000 U.S. dollars per kilo on the black market, it said.

Authorities announced 16 suspected traffickers were arrested in the raids, including Colombian, Argentine, Mexican and Israeli citizens.

Earlier this year, a United Nations study reported Peru overtook Colombia as the biggest producer of coca, a South American plant used to make cocaine, with over 128,000 tonnes produced in the country in 2012.

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