Colombia Seizes Four Tons of Marijuana Headed for Venezuela

By Dialogo
January 06, 2011

The police of the Colombian city of Cali have seized four tons of marijuana that were going to be transported to Venezuela, their commander, Gen. Miguel Ángel Bojacá, said on 4 January.

The contraband, valued at four million dollars by the police, was discovered in a truck traveling from this city, in the southwestern part of the country, to the port of Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast.

The driver of the vehicle and another individual who was accompanying him were arrested in the operation.

Bojacá also highlighted the “hydroponic” character of the drugs: the marijuana was grown in greenhouses in the department of El Cauca (in southwestern Colombia) using hydroponic techniques, which make it possible to manipulate the plants and, due to their quality, to sell them for a higher price.

“We are once again concerned about the rise of hydroponic marijuana cultivation. This year, these are the first four tons of hydroponic marijuana seized. Last year, we seized twenty-eight tons in the same region,” Bojacá said, quoted by the Cali daily El País.

In November, the police seized four tons of marijuana in Palmira, also in the southwestern part of the country.

The Colombian police indicated at that time that up to that point in 2010, they had seized two hundred tons of marijuana, “which works out to a daily average of more than 630 kilos.”

This figure, the police specified, was 38% higher than that recorded the previous year.

This is the second blow struck against drug traffickers by the authorities since the beginning of the year, following Monday’s seizure by the police of 1.5 tons of cocaine in the Caribbean beach resort of Cartagena (in northern Colombia).

The drugs were hidden in the ceiling of a container headed for the United States on a vessel expected to make stops in Honduras and the Dominican Republic.