The drug trafficking complex belonged to the Residual Organized Armed Group (GAO-r) Structure 29 “Gonzáles Prado”, which is under the criminal control of alias “Sábalo”.
In the framework of the “Diamante” Plan, troops of the Twenty-third Brigade, of the Third Division, and the Special Brigade Against Drug Trafficking, with the support of the Aviation and Air Assault Division of the National Army, with the CTI (Technical Investigations Corps) of the Attorney General's Office, arrived in the village of Buenavista, in the municipality of Cumbitara, in the department of Nariño, where they found the largest cocaine hydrochloride laboratory ever found to date in southwestern Colombia.
Soldiers of the Battalion against Drug Trafficking No. 1 and the Infantry Battalion No. 9 Batalla de Boyacá, after intelligence work, found the cocaine laboratory. It was divided into 13 rustic structures of large proportions connected to each other. The production capacity per month of this cocaine hydrochloride laboratory would be of five tons.
It is noteworthy that during the procedure it was possible to find 250 kilograms of coca base paste and 100 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride. In the same way, it was possible to destroy 3,302 gallons of liquid cocaine distributed in 50 plastic barrels, 6,000 gallons of liquid precursors and a ton of solid precursors, used for the production of the drug.
In the complex there were two radios, five Martians (rudimentary distillation towers), two vacuum packers, an electricity generator, 34 microwave ovens, 10 gas cylinders, 65 plastic barrels, two hydraulic presses, a compressor, 18 meters, three scales, 17 distillation towers, 14 test tubes, 30 tools (shovels, picks), 3,500 rolls of tape, two industrial stoves, a washing machine, four rudimentary bathrooms, two dining rooms, and other elements. This laboratory was located strategically in municipalities of the cordillera to have access to drug trafficking routes of these criminal groups.
With the destruction of this cocaine laboratory, the largest found to date in this area of the country, after the seven mega laboratories of cocaine in the month of July by troops of the Twenty-Third Brigade in this same sector, this residual Armed Group Organized will no longer receive more than 23,000 million Colombian pesos per month, about US $7,818, 000.
Source: Twenty-third Brigade - National Army
