The police have suspended raids on the rudimentary laboratories that make coca base until their helicopters are armored.

The police ripped up the pens with a chainsaw and kicked over the metal drums, splattering coca base into the mud.

The goal is to intercept shipments of coca base on jungle rivers before they reach Colombia for processing into cocaine.

Helping a depressed economy, coca base has become the nation's single most successful export, earning about $1.5 billion last year.

On paper, Peru's current strategy of seizing coca base on the ground appears successful - four tons last year.

Peru's annual sales of coca base are estimated at $500 million to $1 billion.

The next step would be to establish laboratories in the region and use them to refine "coca base" into the white powder.

The leaf is made into a paste, which is refined into coca base and then converted to cocaine.

The underpaid police are seizing coca base and paste at rates half those of last year.

The electricity was rerouted, Lieutenant Johnston said, for heat lamps that dry coca base.