The interception operations were supported by a unit of the United States Southern Command Interagency Joint Task Force – JIATFS.
During the proceedings it was possible to arrest four individuals of Colombian nationality.
Within the framework of two comprehensive maritime control and security operations carried out by the Colombian Navy in the Pacific Ocean, it was possible to confiscate more than half a ton of cocaine hydrochloride, whose value in international illegal markets would exceed USD $31 million. This illicit merchandise was transported on board two go fast type boats, crewed by four individuals of Colombian nationality.
The operations were carried out thanks to information provided by Naval Intelligence and with the support of a Unit of the Interagency Joint Task Force of the Southern Command of the United States – JIATFS–, which alerted about the activity of two boats that were traveling suspiciously in Colombian Pacific waters. Immediately, Rapid Reaction Units were deployed from the Buenaventura Coast Guard Station to the said areas to carry out the corresponding operations.
During the process of checking the first boat, 369 rectangular packages, as well as communication equipment, were found by troops in a hidden hold. In the second boat, 300 packages of different sizes were found by troops that, due to their characteristics, would resemble illicit substances.
The confiscated cargo was taken to the facilities of the Naval Institution in Buenaventura, where the personnel of the Technical Investigation Corps –CTI– of the Attorney General's Office conducted the Approved Preliminary Identification Test, determining that, on board the first ship there were 388.6 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride and in the second, 299.7 kilograms of the same substance, for 688.3 kilograms of narcotics.
The four arrested and the confiscated items were put into custody of the authorities to carry out the corresponding legal procedures.
Through this result, the commercialization of more than 1.7 million doses of narcotics on the streets of the world was prevented, and it becomes a powerful loss to the transnational crime structures specialized in drug trafficking.
Source: Press – Navy of Colombia
