Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro

The Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro (lit.

'Valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers'), also known as the VRAEM, is a geopolitical area in Peru, located in portions of the departments of Ayacucho, Cusco, Huancavelica, and Junin.

[4] Since 2012, Peru has overtaken Colombia as the world's largest cocaine-producing country.

[5][6] With local incomes below $10/day, the valleys are used to produce raw paste product, and much of the drug trade is controlled by the Shining Path.

[1][7] Paste product is shipped out of the valleys by armed native backpackers to Cuzco,[3][6] and then onward shipped to either: the Pacific Ocean ports; the Bolivian border, where it is sold to one of the drug cartels; or to mule-traffickers who ship the product onwards via scheduled air transport to Europe and North America.