Juan Forero – The Washington Post, 01/24/2013
The jungle frontier between Brazil and Bolivia is longer than the U.S.-Mexico border, but on a recent day the task of stemming the cocaine that counterdrug officials say is flooding the country fell to a handful of Brazilian policemen.
In tiny border hamlets, the officers made their rounds, urging villagers to report what they’ve seen. In a speedboat, others patrolled the Mamore River separating the two countries, guessing which of the countless motorized canoes was carrying drugs bound for Brazil’s big cities.
“Here, the problem is grave, with lots of drugs crossing constantly,” said Alexandre Barbosa, one of 35 federal police officers assigned to this sector in Rondonia state in far western Brazil. “You see this region, where the frontier is separated by a river. So there are many ports. Every 100 meters, or sometimes less, you see a port. So you can move from one port to the other very fast.”
Brazil Portal 