Peruvian Congress gives military the authority to shoot down cocaine-smuggling airplanes

FILE - In this June 2, 2015, file photo, soldiers stand guard at a military base in Madre de Dios, Peru. Peru's Congress has unanimously approved legislation on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, authorizing military planes to shoot down suspected drug flights, which police say smuggle more than a ton of cocaine to Bolivia daily. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) (The Associated Press)

LIMA, Peru – Peru's Congress has unanimously approved legislation authorizing military planes to shoot down suspected drug flights, which police say smuggle more than a ton of cocaine to Bolivia daily.

President Ollanta Humala is expected to sign the bill into law.

Peru halted aerial interdiction after an air force pilot killed a U.S. missionary and her child in a 2001 attack on a misidentified plane.

Peru became the world's No. 1 cocaine producer in 2012 and about half the cocaine it produces travels via small planes to Bolivia.

Humala vowed to make combating trafficking a priority when he took office in 2011.

His government has eradicated a record amount of coca fields but has been criticized for seizing a relatively small amount of cocaine and leaving the "air bridge" to Bolivia undisturbed.