In the year 2025, the Naval Institution has found 50.3 tons of cocaine hydrochloride in the Caribbean region, damaging the finances of drug trafficking groups by more than 2,400 million dollars.
In a multinational operation, the Colombian Navy and the Joint Interagency Task Force of the Southern Command of the United States (JIATF-S), found more than 400 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, which were transported aboard a go fast type boat, in an interception about 70 nautical miles (approximately 130 kilometers), northwest of Puerto Bolivar, in the department of La Guajira.
This result takes place thanks to the constant work of the military surveillance and control operation carried out by the Colombian Navy, in coordination with international resources and strategic allies, focused on countering transnational crime in the Caribbean sea routes. On this occasion, a ship was detected traveling at high speed and in a suspicious manner, allegedly with the intention of reaching Central America, with a cargo of illicit substances.
A multinational maritime interception operation was immediately activated, in which a Rapid Reaction Unit - URR of the Coast Guard, an Oceanic vessel and a naval air unit of the Colombian Navy, as well as a Maritime Patrol aircraft of the US Naval Aviation. For several hours, these units executed a pursuit, which culminated in the interception of the suspicious boat.
After the stop of the boat, three individuals were arrested in flagrante delicto. At the same time, 21 sacks containing 549 packages were recovered of the sea, which had been thrown by the crew members during the chase, in order to evade the authorities.
The immobilized boat, along with the arrested and the recovered material, was transferred to a safe point on the Colombian Caribbean coast. However, due to the difficult weather conditions, the boat ended up capsizing during the towing maneuver.
Once on dry land, officials of the Judicial Police made the Approved Preliminary Identification Test - PIPH, which left a positive result for 416 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride. This shipment would have an estimated cost of 20 million dollars in the illegal international market, and it would be enough to commercialize more than one million doses.
The arrested, two of Venezuelan nationality and one Colombian, along with the material found, were put into custody of the authority for prosecution.
"This result of 416 kilograms of cocaine is a powerful example of what is achieved thanks to the coordinated work conducted by the Colombian Navy and international strategic allies. Effective cooperation, the exchange of information and the coordination of resources leads to closing drug trafficking routes and protecting the maritime spaces of the region. This illegal merchandise, valued at about 20 million dollars in the illegal market, represents about a million doses that will not reach the streets and that will not hit public health” said Frigate Captain Felipe Portilla, Commander of the Cartagena Coast Guard Station.
Source: Press – Navy of Colombia
