US says drug shipments through Venezuela rising

CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec 17 (Reuters) Cocaine shipments through Venezuela have increased tenfold over five years, the US ambassador to Caracas said as the two countries struggle to renew a counter-narcotics accord.

Venezuela last year ended cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration after President Hugo Chavez accused the agency of spying on him amid increasing confrontation between Washington and Caracas.

''Right now our estimate is that between around 200 and 300 tonnes of processed cocaine (every year) pass through Venezuela -- ten times the amount of five years ago,'' said US Ambassador William Brownfield in a television interview broadcast today.

''Part of the reason is that drug traffickers ... see an opening in Venezuela, where there is no collaboration'' with the United States, he said.

The nation is a key transit route to the United States and Europe for drugs coming out of neighboring Colombia, the world's top cocaine producer.

Brownfield met on Thursday with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as part of an effort to mend fraying diplomatic ties, but neither provided concrete details on renewed cooperation with the DEA.

Venezuelan authorities say they have increased the number of drug seizures and drug-related arrests since cutting ties with the DEA, but Brownfield attributed this to a greater amount of drugs flowing through Venezuela.

Washington complains Venezuela, which provides around 12 percent of US oil imports, has not done enough to fight the drug trade, and last year revoked the visas of three high-ranking military officers suspected of drug trafficking.

REUTERS AB KP2310