Authorities have introduced the most important cocaine cargo seizure of the 12 months within the Caribbean Sea off Colombia after army ships and planes chased down a speedboat holding nearly 4 tons of the drug.
In a joint operation between the Colombian Navy, the Colombian Air Drive and the Joint Interagency Activity Drive of america Southern Command, authorities seized the cocaine — mentioned to be price greater than $113 million — from the vessel close to San Andrés Isla, in line with the Colombian Navy. The navy launched dramatic aerial video of the chase, throughout which it mentioned the crew of the suspicious vessel “started evasive actions, throwing packages into the water.”
After a chase that spanned a number of miles, the boat — which was protecting its cargo in a blue tarp — was lastly intercepted, the officers mentioned. Three Colombians, one Honduran and one Venezuelan who had been on board the speedboat had been detained, and subsequent testing confirmed that the boat had been carrying 3,355 kilograms of cocaine weighing, or about 3.7 tons of the drug.
Navy video confirmed officers offloading and arranging lots of of packages of the seized cocaine, which officers mentioned amounted to greater than eight million doses that may “not attain the streets of various nations, thus avoiding the impression on public well being.”
The medicine, boat and 5 suspects had been turned over to the Legal professional Basic’s Workplace, the navy mentioned.
The Colombia-U.S. operation within the Caribbean Sea got here simply days after officers introduced {that a} British warship and an American patrol plane had chased down a speedboat as its crew tried to flee and dump one other cargo of medicine into the water close to the U.S. Virgin Islands. About three tons of cocaine and different medicine, the U.Ok.’s Ministry of Protection mentioned.
Drug busts off the shores of Colombia are additionally frequent.
Simply final month, authorities on a search-and-rescue mission for 2 lacking fishermen off Colombia’s Pacific coast as a substitute discovered a semi-submersible vessel loaded with greater than 4 tons of cocaine, officers mentioned. The so-called “narco sub” was intercepted throughout a joint operation by the Colombian and Ecuadorian navies and the Colombian Air Drive, the Colombian Navy mentioned.
Colombia produces about 60% of the cocaine discovered on the planet.
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