According to Brazilian authorities, the country's domestic drug problem is increasing. Brazil continues to cooperate with its neighbors, particularly Peru and Colombia, to effectively control the remote frontier regions where illicit drugs are transported. Federal Police reported seizing four metric tons of cocaine in 2000, a figure supplemented by state, local, and highway police forces' narcotics seizures made but not reflected in the federal government statistics. Brazil is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention. Although Brazil is not a significant drug producing country, it is a major transit country for cocaine base moving from Andean Ridge cultivation areas to processing laboratories in Colombia.
Brazil has a large, sophisticated financial sector.
Money laundering, which became a criminal offense in 1998, is associated with narcotics trafficking, contraband, and other corruption. In November, a parliamentary investigative commission estimated annual money laundering in Brazil at 50 billion dollars, half of which it attributed to narcotics. Brazilian administration officials counter this assertion by maintaining that there is no accurate estimate of the level of money laundering in Brazil. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2000 Policy Initiatives. The DPF will also implement a tactical air patrol group to cover the entire region using fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft.