'' WHAC-A-MOLE STRATEGY '' : SOUTH AMERICA PRECIS

SANTOS-BRAZIL : ' Whac-a-Mole strategy ' can't halt drug flows from South America : Drones, troops and A.I. are deployed, but cartels soon invent new tactics.

South America's bustling seaports have never been under more watchful eyes. They are patrolled by armed soldiers and monitored by thousands of cameras.

Drones look for drivers stashing COCAINE onto ships. Sniffer dogs, special agents and scanners powered by artificial intelligence swep containers stuffed with coffee and beef for signs of drugs.

Yet, the painstaking work of intercepting cocaine before it leaves South America or the rest of the world is often a futile cat-and-mouse chase.

'' We discover a route, and they'll change to another,'' said Rhumalo Pereira Brando Neto, a customs agent at the Santos port in Brazil, the busiest in Latin America.

'' We improve our process, they improve theirs.''

South American nations have never had a more powerful arsenal of tools, from advanced technology to military might.

But the authorities say they are fighting an uphill battle against deep-pocketed global criminal groups that reap enormous windfalls from record demands for COCAINE.

!WOW! thanks Ana Tonova and Max Bearak.