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A drug glut slashes prices

Miami is known as the "Casablanca of Coke" with good reason: an estimated 70% of all cocaine imported into the U.S. passes through South Florida. Control over nationwide distribution remains rooted in Miami. But these days the city's drug dealers have got a problem: the avalanche of coke descending on them. Not in recent memory has the powdery white stuff been so plentiful, or so cut-rate.

The wholesale price per kilo has plummeted 50%, from $60,000 in 1981 to $30,000 now. "They've got to move the inventory," says Sergeant Skip Pearson of the Metro-Dade Organized Crime Bureau. "It's like an end-of-the-year sale." Explains Bureau Commander Arthur Nehrbass: "Right now, it's a buyer's market. We've been offered coke at $28,000 per kilo on credit, with two weeks to pay."

Unusual deals are being offered in other U.S. cities, though New York City and Chicago prices, either wholesale or retail, have not yet been affected. A year ago, coke was selling for about $60,000 in Atlanta; now it fetches a bargain-basement $36,000. The Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles estimates that a kilo of wholesale coke has dropped to $45,000 from as high as $60,000 a year ago.

The coke glut could last until late 1984, and possibly into 1985. High-grade coke started flooding South Florida last spring, after illegal Colombian coca plantations seeded four years ago started bringing in four crops annually, double those produced in Peru and Bolivia, where coca is grown legally. Colombian smuggling groups anticipated the record crop by upping the refining capacities of their labs. "They've overproduced, like General Motors turning out too many Chevrolets," says Nehrbass. Coke's wholesale price in Colombia has fallen from $22,000 to $9,000 in the past year. To reduce inventories, drug wholesalers must move their shipments fast; processed coke is highly perishable. Hauling large amounts makes them vulnerable to seizures. Since June 17 the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System has recovered more than 7,000 Ibs., most of it in South Florida. Says Pearson: "They keep sending it up with carnations from Colombia and we keep intercepting it."

Officials fear that as the powder's retail worth falls, new, less affluent buyers will become regular customers. The going price per gram is $75 to $100; the glut could cut that to $50 or even $25. Coke is reaching the streets in a purer, stronger form. All this worries Dr. Charles Wetli, Dade County's deputy chief medical examiner: "If the price drops and there is an increase in purity," he warns, "you're going to have a lot more deaths from snorting and free-basing." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.