The Colombian Military Forces’ General Command (CGFM, in Spanish) reported the seizure of war material and the destruction of illicit drug labs and illegal mining units, all property of the National Liberation Army (ELN, in Spanish) guerrilla group, in three Colombian departments, between July 13-23.
The Colombian Army found 33 60-millimeter anti-tank grenades and nearly 1,200 launchers on July 23 in Maicao municipality, La Guajira department, CGFM said in a statement.
“Thanks to information from our community, and after the results of intelligence work, we were able to detect and locate this illegal arsenal, which helped us anticipate the ELN’s terrorist actions against the Public Force and the civilian population of La Guajira,” Colombian Army Colonel Enrique Alonso Álvarez Hernández, commander of the 10th Armored Brigade, told the press.
In another operation coordinated between the Air Force and the National Police, CGFM reported on July 19 in Chocó, the seizure of eight mining production units on the banks of the Quito and Tadó Rivers that belonged to the ELN’s Che Guevara front. On site, authorities destroyed five dredgers, three excavators, and an engine — all equipment used in the illegal exploitation of mining sites, CGFM added.
In the southermost region of the country, in Samaniego municipality, Nariño department, units of the Army’s 3rd Division dealt another blow to the insurgent group on July 13, when units of the 23rd Brigade found and destroyed an ELN lab, including 12 rustic facilities for processing cocaine hydrochloride. The lab could produce around 3 tons of drugs per week, CGFM reported.
