Peru Drug Pair Transferred To Notorious Prison Why Peru Became The Cocaine Hotspot Updated: 2:26am UK, Sunday 15 September 2013 By Pete Norman, Sky News Online Peru has overtaken Colombia as the world's leading cocaine producer, according to experts. Home to the ancient Inca civilisation, Peru is rugged, remote and the ultimate source of the mighty Amazon river. It is also home to a long-running guerrilla campaign by the leftist Shining Path group. While urban and coastal inhabitants have benefited greatly from market-focused economic development since the early 1980s, when military rule ended, the rural poor have gained little. Its hilly, isolated and fertile regions are home to the guerrillas, who rely on cocaine production, hostage-taking and corruption for funds. According to the CIA, Peru was the world's largest coca leaf producer until 1996, when neighbouring Colombia took the lead. It says that in 2009 Peru had 100,000 acres under coca leaf production compared to Colombia's 286,000 acres - with the potential to produce 225 metric tons of pure cocaine. US-supported efforts to reduce or eradicate coca leaf in Colombia have now tipped the scales of production towards Peru. Aerial spraying of herbicide in Colombia has affected coca crops covering 250,000 acres while manual eradication has been done on another 150,000 acres. The UN has said Colombia reduced its area under coca cultivation by 25% in 2012 - the biggest annual reduction since the international body began monitoring it in 2001. Around 30 Britons are now in Peruvian prisons on drug-related convictions, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime is expected to release its official 2012 Peru coca crop estimate in September. Its World Drug Report 2011 said that although the area under coca leaf production was around 75% of the 1990 area, the current yield might be up to a third greater. While Colombia still supplies virtually all of North America's cocaine, the CIA said much of the drug exported from Peru through land, air and sea routes is destined for Europe and other markets. North America and Europe cocaine consumption has stabilised in recent years while growth has increased in Oceania and Asia Pacific regions. It said: "Finished cocaine is shipped out from Pacific ports to the international drug market, (while) increasing amounts of base and finished cocaine, however, are being moved to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia for ... trans-shipment to Europe and Africa." Smaller quantities are carried through air routes by so-called drug mules, while larger loads travel by sea to west Africa prior to distribution throughout Europe.