Troops of the 8th Field Artillery Battalion and the Eje Cafetero Military Gaula (Anti-Extortion and Anti-Kidnapping Group) reported the finding of a laboratory that produced about 3 tons of the narcotic, valued at more than 24 billion pesos.
In compliance with the Ayacucho Campaign Plan, troops of the Eighth Brigade, with the Attorney General's Office, the National Police, the Drug Control Administration and the DIJIN Criminal Investigation Directorate, carried out a military operation that led to the arrest of three individuals and the finding of a cocaine hydrochloride production laboratory in a rural area of the municipality of Balboa, Risaralda.
For two months, specialized intelligence activities were being carried out by the Military Intelligence Battalion No. 7, which led to the finding of a cocaine laboratory for the production of cocaine hydrochloride that was at the service of the Ernesto Che Guevara front of the Organized Armed Group, GAO, ELN, which commits crimes in the department of Choc贸 and on the borders with Valle del Cauca.
Thus, the coordination with judicial authorities was initiated in order to obtain this result that significantly hits one of the main sources of financing of this illegal armed group, such as drug trafficking.
Upon arriving at the site, troops found three individuals who specialized in this illegal activity who were arrested inside the rudimentary structure, where they found approximately 542 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, 10 kilograms of coca paste base, 2 rifles, 1 pistol, 120 cartridges of different calibers and a magazine.
These individuals, were put into custody of the authority, who will be in charge of conducting the hearing of legalization of arrests through a judge.
It should be noted that the GAO ELN would have contacts with drug trafficking cartels in other countries to send the hallucinogen to Europe and the United States. They in the same way used strategic mobility routes on the borders with the department of Choc贸 to transport the drugs to the Valle del Cauca and the Pacific Coast.
In the same way, the individuals transported cocaine to the center of the country using alternate roads that led them to the municipal capitals in various parts of the national territory, in order to sell it in the illegal microtrafficking market.
For 9 months they had been in the village of La Gurbia de Balboa, Risaralda, an hour and a half of the capital city of Risaralda, having produced so far almost three tons of cocaine hydrochloride, valued in the illegal market at more than 24,000,000,000 COP.
Source: Press - Fifth Division
