Nicaragua said on Wednesday it confiscated 23 tonnes of cocaine last year as it clamped down on drug gangs that use its semi-wild Caribbean coast to speed drugs northward by boat, according to Reuters. Police also seized 182 kg (400 pounds) of heroin and $6 million in cash over the year as they arrested nearly 2,000 people, including 115 foreigners, and dismantled 14 groups linked to drug smuggling, the country's police chief Aminta Granera said. She said the confiscated drugs were worth $423 million at U.S. street prices. "Drug smugglers have tried to use our territory not just for a trafficking route to the north but to organize strong support bases and leave part of the drugs for domestic consumption," Granera said, presenting the annual drug report. She said one of the 14 gangs caught last year had links to Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, which controls Pacific coast smuggling routes. Much of the South American cocaine that moves through Central America on its way north to the United States is smuggled up the region's Caribbean coast by speedboat.
