The Colombian authorities seized 5.4 tonnes of cocaine owned by the country's largest gang, Clan del Golfo, in the department of Choco, bordering Panama, the Colombian navy said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2021) The Colombian authorities seized 5.4 tonnes of cocaine owned by the country's largest gang, Clan del Golfo, in the department of Choco, bordering Panama, the Colombian navy said.
"In the last hours, 5.4 tons of alkaloids were seized at the mouth of the Atrato River in Uraba Chocoano, causing $185 million in financial damages to the organized armed group 'Clan del Golfo,' which commits crimes in the sub-region of the Gulf of Uraba," the navy said on Twitter.
The seized narcotics were believed to be earmarked for shipment by boat to Costa Rica and from there for distribution to North America, Europe, and Asia, the Colombian navy said.
"If this illicit merchandise had arrived... in the United States or Europe, very likely that would mean 16 million doses on the streets of those countries, which would have affected the public health of the world," the commander of Colombia's Caribbean naval task force, Rear Adm. Juan Rozo Obregon, told a press conference.
The operation, which also involved Panama and the United States, did not result in any detentions, according to the report.
Although Colombia spent decades fighting drug cartels, it remains, as the United Nations said in its 2021 report, the world's largest coca producer. Drug trafficking in Colombia has risen over the past half century as the government got bogged down in warfare with guerrilla fighters.
The Colombian government destroyed approximately130,000 hectares of coca in 2020 and confiscated around 505 tonnes of cocaine.
