![](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.12\/thumbnail\/58663e40c461885f378b45b7.jpg\")
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Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to use cocaine-eating moths as part of a plot to destroy Latin America\u2019s booming drug trade, newly-declassified documents reveal.<\/p>\n
The late PM ordered the Home Office to investigate the use of moths in Peru after Lord Rothschild, a close friend and Labour peer, suggested the idea in a letter.<\/p>\n
The plan was abandoned when it was decided that only the Peruvian government could choose whether or not to use the pest within its borders.<\/p>\n
Rothschild suggested the use of cocaine-eating moths in 1989, prompting an enthusiastic response from Thatcher, who ordered government officials to look into the \u201cingenious solution.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The Cabinet papers, released by the National Archives at Kew, southwest London, show how Rothschild suggested using the moths without the permission of Peruvian officials.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile virtually everyone agrees that those who take cocaine or crack, in the various ways available, should be punished, everyone, I think, agrees that it is the \u2018drug baron\u2019 who must be mercilessly \u2018put down\u2019,<\/em>\u201d the peer wrote in a letter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has however occurred to me that there is a possibility that one can go \u2018further back\u2019 than the \u2018drug barons\u2019. I have in mind the introduction of a pest which attacks the source of cocaine.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Rothschild suggested using \u201ccovert<\/em>\u201d tactics and aerial sprays to introduce the moth, in addition to more overt methods.<\/p>\n \u201cSupposing it is possible that such a pest exists or that it is possible to \u2018make\u2019 one, the question arises as to how to introduce it into the relevant parts of the various countries involved<\/em>,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cOne might think of aerial sprays, with or without the connivance of the government concerned.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Thatcher thanked the Labour peer for his \u201ccharacteristically brilliant<\/em>\u201d idea and wrote \u201cvery interesting<\/em>\u201d on an internal memo attached to the letter. She then asked the Home Office and chief scientific adviser John Fairclough to investigate the proposal.<\/p>\n The former PM was made aware of Eloria noyesi, a moth which eats 1.5 times its body weight in coca leaves each day when it is a caterpillar.<\/p>\n Biologist Ashley Morton, who had been studying the insect, told the government about reports of a swarm of the indigenous moth which had caused $37 million worth of damages when it destroyed 20,000 hectares of coca.<\/p>\n However, the plan was shelved when officials decided that only the Peruvian government could decide whether to use the moth against drug growers.<\/p>\n Lima ultimately decided against its use over fears of attracting criticism for the wider potential impact of the moths on the environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to use cocaine-eating moths as part of a plot to destroy Latin America\u2019s booming drug trade, newly-declassified documents reveal. The late PM ordered the Home Office to investigate the use of moths in Peru after Lord Rothschild, a close friend and Labour peer, suggested the idea in a letter. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-287905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}