Ship containing 2,407 kilograms of cocaine valued at over $ 81 million falls in San Andrés

In a joint and combined operation between military units of the Colombian Navy, Colombian Air Force, United States and Panama, the seizure of 2,407 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride which were transported to the general Caribbean area 160 nautical miles from the island of San Andrés, on board a “Go Fast” type motor vessel destined for Central America.

The motor vessel was located, thanks to the coordinated operational synergy between a maritime patrol vessel of the Colombian Navy, military aircraft of the Colombian Air Force and Panama, as well as an air platform -JIATFS- of the Southern Command of the United States, which with Their overflights allowed the ships to be guided to the boat with the alkaloid, which had left the Gulf of Urabá.

Already at sea the Missile Frigate ARC “Antioquia” and the Ocean Patrol ARC “July 20” Supported full contact location and deployed Coast Guard rapid reaction unit. The five subjects, including four Colombians and a foreigner, who maneuvered the boat “Go Fast” when noticing the presence of the authorities and feeling trapped, threw the cache into the sea. The boat was intercepted 160 nautical miles offshore. San Andrés.

Naval Institution crew members retrieved the cache from the waters of the Caribbean Sea and transported it with the boat and its crew to the coastguard station in San Andrés, where staff from the Technical investigation body -CTI- carried out the identification test. Preliminary approved -PIPH-, showing positive result for 2,407 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride. The five captured subjects, the boat and the illicit substance were made available to the general prosecutor’s office..

This drug seizure is the largest obtained in 2021 by the components of the Colombian navy, the Colombian national army and the Colombian air force, which make up the specific command of San Andrés y Providencia. With this result, more than $ 81 million will no longer go into the drug trafficking coffers.

A report from the Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System (SIMCI) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), He stressed that Colombia would be the main producer of cocaine in the world.

Regarding this information, the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, assured last July: “The Force Publique continued unabated, strengthening manual eradication capacities, making this the most important operation it carries out, with over 18,700 men in uniform and members of mobile eradication groups last year, in 2020 ″.

In it, he assured that during this period the eradication of a total of 130,000 hectares of illicit crops has been achieved, the equivalent of 120,000 football fields or 3.4 times the city of Medellín. “The acres eradicated that year dealt a fundamental economic blow to the illegal finances of drug trafficking groups: over $ 302 million, and at the same time they stopped producing 115,000 kg of cocaine hydrochloride thanks to this eradication and to the work of all the men of our public force ”.

Regarding the figures for 2021, he assured that until July 22 of this year the remainder leaves 38,000 hectares of illegal crops eradicated and at least 346 tons of cocaine hydrochloride seized, which is 30% more than the same period in 2020. Something similar is happening with the coca leaf, of which 541 tonnes were seized, which would be 62% more than last year.

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