In only two weeks, the Argentine Gendarmerie and Naval Prefecture seized more than 1,500 kilograms of drugs and dismantled different narcotrafficking gangs. On July 18, during a patrol on National Route 12, Gendarmerie officers chased a suspicious vehicle and found 698 kg of cannabis. The vehicle’s driver fled the scene. [ … ]
Transnational Threats
Paraguay Continues to Score Success Against Illicit Drug Trafficking
The Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD, in Spanish) is keeping the pressure on illicit drug trafficking. [caption id="attachment_39763" align="alignleft" width="300"] SENAD agents seized 425 kg of cocaine in Toro Pampa, where an organization used a clandestine airstrip that was more than 1 km long. (Photo: Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat)[/caption] On [ … ]
Brazilian Federal Police Dismantles Criminal Organization at Brazil-Paraguay Border
On August 6, the Brazilian Federal Police launched Operation CAVOK in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, at the Brazil-Paraguay border, to dismantle a criminal organization that engaged in international narcotrafficking and operated in Ponta Porã, which borders the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, in Paraguay. Federal police officers [ … ]
Costa Rica Seizes Nearly 2.4 Tons of Narcotics
Costa Rican authorities dealt three tough blows to narcotrafficking, with the seizures of 915 kilograms of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean and 1,474 kg of marijuana coming from Mexico. The cocaine seizure took place on July 31. The Costa Rican Coast Guard detected a suspicious vessel in the country’s south [ … ]
Guatemala Seizes More Than 2 Tons of Cocaine
The Guatemalan Army seized more than 2 tons of cocaine in an aircraft near the borders with Belize and Mexico on July 26. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the press that authorities had been investigating the aircraft since it was sold in April 2019. [caption id="attachment_39703" align="alignleft" width="327"] [ … ]
Maduro Hands Over Control of Urban Areas to Illegal Armed Groups
As the political crisis and the coronavirus pandemic worsen, the regime of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro has ceded control of different urban areas in Caracas and the country’s inland to the so-called “illegally armed colectivos.” At the entrance to the 23 de Enero parish, barely half a kilometer from the Miraflores [ … ]
Paraguayan Narcotics Agents Seize Nearly 3 Tons of Hashish
On August 7, special agents from the Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD, in Spanish) seized nearly 3 tons of hashish, in Capitán Bado, a city in Amambay department on the border with Brazil. The drug was bound for the neighboring country, the Paraguayan newspaper La Nación reported. Authorities seized the [ … ]
Duque to the Lima Group: ‘Diplomatic Pressure Has Pushed the Dictatorship Out of Its Comfort Zone’
On August 14, Colombian President Iván Duque said that “diplomatic pressure has pushed the dictatorship out of its comfort zone,” in reference to the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro dictatorship, during the XIX Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Lima Group. The head of state, speaking from Bogotá, stated that [ … ]
Colombia Reports Destruction of Drug Labs and Capture of Criminals
In the first two weeks of August 2020, Colombian authorities reported several operations resulting in considerable losses to criminals and to the finances of organized crime. During a joint operation on August 15, between the Colombian Navy and the National Police, authorities captured 18 members of the criminal group Clan [ … ]
Military Forces of Colombia Deal Blow to Residual Organized Armed Group
In early August, the Colombian Navy and Army dealt a harsh blow to the residual organized armed group (GAO-r, in Spanish) Estructura Sexta, which operates in the Colombian Pacific. In three operations, the Military Forces seized a semisubmersible and 1 ton of marijuana and captured two of the group’s members. [ … ]
Colombia Moves Forward Decisively in the Fight Against Narcotrafficking
Since taking up the reins of government, President Iván Duque has established among his priorities a head-on fight against narcotrafficking, against all the links in the criminal chain that are a source of financing for illegal organizations that bring violence and destruction to Colombian territories. As the president has explained, [ … ]
Colombia Dismantles Counterfeit Dollar Factory
In late July, troops of the Colombian Army’s Deployment Force against Transnational Threats, in cooperation with the Office of the Attorney General’s Technical Investigation Team, dismantled a factory that produced counterfeit U.S. dollars in Meta department. According to a press release from the Army, the criminal organization had been engaging [ … ]