Crop cultivation and the chemicals used to produce drugs have a direct impact on the hemisphere’s flora, soils, fauna, and rivers. Countries like Colombia and Peru are rapidly losing their natural resources and ecosystems due to narcotrafficking, which clears forests to grow marijuana, as well as coca to produce cocaine [ … ]
Recent News
Colombian Navy Seizes $9 Million Worth of Cocaine
In the early morning hours of May 21, the Colombian Navy seized a large shipment of cocaine off its southern Pacific coast, valued at more than $9 million. Acting on information from naval intelligence, a Colombian Coast Guard unit from the Tumaco station was deployed. The unit detected a boat [ … ]
Armed Forces Promote Operation Green Brazil 2 to Combat Amazon Deforestation
In early May, the Brazilian federal government launched Operation Green Brazil 2, carrying out preventive and repressive actions to combat crimes against the environment, such as illegal deforestation and wildfires in the Amazon. The 5 million-square-kilometer area represents 59 percent of all the national territory and includes nine states: Acre, [ … ]
ELN Dealt Serious Blow as Colombian Security Forces Neutralize High Ranking Leader
Colombia’s relentless assault against narco-terrorist organizations and other guerilla groups continues to pay dividends as the Ministry of Defense announced the death of another high-ranking terrorist leader. During an operation on May 14 involving Colombian security forces in the northern Bolívar department, a man known as Gallero from the National [ … ]
US Coast Guard Cutter Offloads 13 Metric Tons of Drugs
Units assigned to U.S. Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) enhanced counternarcotics operations, which launched on April 1, continue to support operations, in cooperation with 22 partner nations, to increase surveillance, disruption, and seizures of drug shipments and strengthen eradication efforts in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The U.S. has deployed [ … ]
Colombian Forces Destroy Massive Cocaine Laboratory
In late April, the Military Forces of Colombia, with support from the Office of the Attorney General’s Technical Investigation Corps and the United States, found a large complex for the production of cocaine in a rural area of Nariño department, in the Pacific coast of Colombia. The complex, consisting of [ … ]
Sanitary Matters and Illegal Activities Prompt South America to Strengthen Border Controls
Brazil has the highest number of coronavirus infections in all of South America, which is almost four times higher than Peru, the second most affected country. To prevent borders from contributing to an increase in the spread of the virus, Brazil’s neighboring countries are seeking joint solutions to fight the [ … ]
Colombia to Offer Benefits to Members Leaving Armed Groups
In late April, the Colombian government announced it would offer benefits to members of organized armed groups (GAO, in Spanish), who want to reenter civil society. The policy would apply to members of the National Liberation Army (ELN, in Spanish), dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, in [ … ]
54-Year-Old Coast Guard Cutter Seizes 1,090 Lb of Suspected Cocaine from Smuggling Vessel off Central American Coast
A 54-year-old Coast Guard cutter seized approximately 1,090 pounds of suspected cocaine in mid-May with an estimated value of $18.7 million from a go-fast vessel in international waters of the Pacific Ocean off Central America. [caption id="attachment_36961" align="alignright" width="280"] A panga is shown in the eastern Pacific Ocean off Central [ … ]
US Embassy Barbados Provides PPE Funding For COVID-19 Response in the Eastern Caribbean
With the high demand in the Eastern Caribbean for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies due to COVID-19, the United States stepped up to assist their partner nations during this crisis. More than $100,000 worth of PPE and other medical supplies were donated to seven Eastern Caribbean countries: [ … ]
Honduran Service Members Fight Forest Fires that Afflict the Country
About 5,000 elements of the Ecosystem and Environmental Management Support Command (C-9) of the Honduran Armed Forces deployed in different parts of Honduras to fight forest fires that have been devastating the country since early 2020. From January to mid-May, 835 forest fires damaged nearly 55,000 hectares, the Honduran National [ … ]
USS Pinckney Interdicts Second Drug Vessel
The Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) with embarked U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) team seized over 2,700 kilograms of suspected cocaine May 16. After a U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), assigned to the “Tridents” of Patrol Squadron VP 26, first spotted the low profile [ … ]