/ Source: The Associated Press
Brazil is constructing a large police base near its border with Paraguay in an effort to stop the free flow of drugs, arms and pirated goods.
National public security office director Ricardo Balestreri says the base will have a runway for aerial patrols from Brazil's southern border well into the Amazon — a stretch more than 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) long.
A Justice Ministry spokesman said Friday that the base is being installed in Mato Grosso do Sul state.
A U.S. State Department report earlier this year said the area was a main corridor for the flow of Bolivian, Colombian and Peruvian cocaine destined for Brazil's cities and for export to Africa and Europe.
The report says that Brazil's major drug gangs control the flow.
