Semi-submersible intercepted in Colombia carried two tons of cocaine

“Surface units (ships) and Coast Guard of the Naval Force of the Pacific, guided by intelligence information from the Colombian Navy, succeeded in intercepting a semi-submersible naval craft, piloted by three subjects, including an alien “he told the Navy. A declaration.

The three crew members must answer for the alleged offenses of use and possession of a semi-submersible and drug trafficking, charges which in Colombia can be punished by twelve years in prison.

2,039 rectangular packages were found in the fifteen-meter-long vessel, which upon inspection contained 2,040 kilograms of cocaine. The Navy said over the past week it managed to seize an additional 2.2 tonnes of narcotics in another operation.

At least a dozen semi-submersibles were detained in the Colombian Pacific during the year 2021. In February, a shipment of four tons of cocaine was found in the west of the country, which also belonged to one dissidents of the FARC. It is one of the biggest to be detected by the authorities.

In 2020, Colombia seized 500 tons of cocaine and eradicated 130,000 hectares of coca leaves manually, according to the presidency. However, it is still the country with the largest area of ​​coca leaf cultivated in the Andean region, although figures vary depending on the source.

According to the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), 245,000 hectares of cultivated coca were recorded in 2020, the highest figure in the last decade. In contrast, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that 143,000 hectares of coca were recorded in the same year, indicating a reduction of 7% from 2019, where 154,000 hectares had been declared.