This illegal infrastructure was apparently the epicentre of illicit operations of the residual Organized Armed Group (GAO-r) Estructura 33, in the region El Catatumbo, Norte de Santander.
In a joint and inter-institutional operation, troops from the Vulcanoo Task Force and the No. 1 Anti-Narcotics Battalion of the National Army, together with the Colombian Air Force and the CTI (Technical Investigations Corps) of the Attorney’s GeneralOffice, managed to dismantle a cocaine hydrochloride production complex composed of five structures that would belong to the illegal financing system of the GAO-r, E-33.
The laboratory, which was located in the rural area of the village of Área Libre, in the municipality of Tibú, Norte de Santander, had five structures equipped with elements for the production of drugs in industrial quantities, such as: three Marcianos (illegal distiller of stolen crude oil), with a capacity of 1,000 and 2,000 litres; a twelve-mouth Gusano (machine for filtering and separating the liquid from the chopped coca leaf) and three Dados (metal containers for storing gasoline), with a capacity of 1,000 litres in each.
In the same way, troops found six power generators, fifteen microwave ovens, ten drying operations, five gas pipettes, a hydraulic press, six digital weights, five grasses, twelve tanks with capacity for 500 and 1,000 liters, fifty-two barrels of 100 liters each and three Fisto shotguns.
In addition, more than 3,000 litres of acetone, 1,000 litres of pategrillo gasoline and five gallons of hydrochloric acid were seized, as well as 225 kilograms of solid inputs for the processing of cocaine hydrochloride.
With this operation, the residual GAO E-33 suffers a significant impact on its illegal financing system, because its drug production capacity and its economic income from drug trafficking, decrease to 5 billion pesos a week, an amount that drug cartels would be paying for the alkaloid.
The civil society is invited to report any suspicious acts on the national toll-free line 147.
Source: National Army News Agency
