The first quarter of 2024 saw two major blows against narcotrafficking in the Colombian Caribbean: the largest cocaine seizure of the year, and the largest marijuana seizure in the last 10 years. Both results were achieved through coordinated and combined operations between the Colombian Military Forces and U.S. Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South).
In late March, after a miles-long chase after a suspicious go-fast boat, a Rapid Reaction Unit of the Colombian Navy’s San Andrés and Providencia Coast Guard Station interdicted the runaways that transported 3.3 tons of cocaine hydrochloride.
“The National Navy through its operational components of the Caribbean Naval Force and the San Andrés and Providencia Specific Command, through a joint and combined maritime interdiction operation with aircraft from the FAC [Colombian Aerospace Force] and U.S. Southern Command, as well as a National Navy platform, detected a suspicious vessel within the jurisdiction of the Archipelago department of San Andrés and Providencia,” Colombian Navy Captain Carlos Urbano Montes, chief of staff of the San Andrés and Providencia Specific Command, told the press.
“The surface and rapid reaction units of the San Andres Coast Guard station were immediately informed and proceeded to detect and interdict the vessel, in which five individuals were found: three Colombians, one Venezuelan, one Honduran. And in its interior were found packages with suspicious substances. They were taken with all the security measures to the Coast Guard Station of San Andrés and later, in coordination with competent authorities, we detected that this [drug] was cocaine hydrochloride, more than 3.3 tons.”
In the process, the go-fast vessel’s crew members threw some packages overboard, however, the Colombian units were able to recover the drug. “The seized substance is worth more than $113 million in the illegal market,” the Colombian Navy said in a statement.
Another important result against narcotrafficking was achieved in late February when the Caribbean Naval Force made the largest marijuana seizure in the last 10 years in the Bolívar department. “During an operation against criminal organizations engaged in narcotrafficking, the Colombian Navy and the FAC, with support from JIATF South, seized a total of 1,727 kilograms of marijuana and 266 kg of cocaine hydrochloride; a stash that on the international black market would have a value of more than $18 million,” the Colombian Navy indicated.
“The support of the United States has been a fundamental pillar in carrying out operations against narcotrafficking, putting at the disposal of the Colombian Navy its technical, technological, and human capabilities, which added to our capabilities lead to an operational synergy that has allowed us to hinder transnational crime organizations, by seizing more than 90 tons of cocaine so far in 2024,” Colombian Navy Rear Admiral Camilo Ernesto Segovia Forero, commander of the Caribbean Naval Force, told Diálogo.
“Seventy percent of the operations carried out in the Caribbean have the direct or indirect participation of our partner countries, either through the use of surface and aerial means, among others, capabilities that, combined with those of our Navy and the training of our men, have made it possible to seize much larger quantities than those from the recent past,” Rear Adm. Segovia added.
Between January and March 2024, the Colombian Public Force reported a 31.8 percent increase in cocaine seizures, compared to the same period in 2023, according to information from the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. “These operations of the Public Force against narcotrafficking have managed to seize 176 tons of cocaine in this first quarter of 2024, that is, 42 tons more than in the same period of 2023.”
