The reported discovery of fentanyl in the hands of the Segunda Marquetalia, a dissident faction of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), adds a new, concerning dimension to the drug trafficking landscape in Colombia.
For the first time, an illegal armed group is combining transnational operations with the diversion of controlled medicines, signaling a potential shift in illicit routes toward Venezuela and the Caribbean. The impact of this evolving dynamic warrants close attention from regional security institutions.
“These types of organizations represent a hybrid threat by combining transnational and unconventional operations with illicit trafficking and corruption,” Yadira Gálvez, a security expert and academic at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Diálogo. According to Gálvez, the evolution of the Second Marquetalia allows it to “finance itself through multiple crimes, while maintaining and deepening alliances with corrupt state actors.”
In September 2025, a Colombian National Army operation in Puerto Rondón, Arauca, led to the seizure of hundreds of units of fentanyl. These batches, registered by the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance, were destined for hospitals, Infobae reported. The investigation determined that the Segunda Marquetalia had diverted these drugs both to treat its wounded combatants and to supply drug consumption in border areas.
Fentanyl: from medical use to criminal weapon
Fentanyl, originally restricted to medical use for anesthesia and pain control, has become a highly dangerous substance after infiltrating the networks of illegal armed groups. “Its potency is such that it is estimated to be between 50 and 100 times stronger than morphine and about 50 times stronger than heroin, making it a highly dangerous substance,” Spanish daily El País reported.
This danger was formally recognized on a global security level on December 15, 2025, when the United States designated illicit fentanyl and its precursors as weapons of mass destruction, highlighting its extreme lethality. This designation reflects a shift in how the threat is viewed, treating the distribution of fentanyl as an act of chemical warfare that endangers national and regional stability.
The traceability of fentanyl is complicated in this region. “These organizations use the Colombia-Venezuela route, which highlights the permeability of the border and their logistics capabilities,” said Gálvez, who also warned about the Venezuelan regime’s historical support for these groups, “first as guerrillas and now as drug traffickers.”
The challenge, according to the expert, that the “gray area” between legality and illegality as groups such as the Segunda Marquetalia diversify their operations into synthetic drugs such as high-potency fentanyl.
Trafficking routes
The porous border between Colombia and Venezuela has been key to the rise of fentanyl trafficking. As early as 2017, Colombian health authorities warned of the fraudulent circulation of products from Venezuela, exploited by smuggling and irregular migrant trafficking networks, a report by the Police Community of the Americas (AMERIPOL) indicated.
The most affected regions for illicit drug flow include the coffee-growing region, the Pacific coast, and the north-central part of the country, where fentanyl enters both through diversion from the health system and through import routes via strategic border crossings.
Seizures on the rise and Colombia as a transit route
The increase in pharmaceutical fentanyl diversion became an immediate focus for authorities following a surge in seizures. Between 2018 and 2021, seizures did not exceed 150 units per year. However, that figure spiked to 1,435 in 2022, and 1,518 in 2023 according to El País.
The peak of this diversion occurred in 2024, when the Colombian Public Forces seized a record 18,215 units of fentanyl, Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said recently. However, authorities have since achieved significant success in tightening control over the licit supply chain, leading to a sharp decline in 2025, with less than 2000 units seized as of late September.
During the seizure of 2,000 ampoules in Maicao, La Guajira, in February 2024, one detainee confessed that the final destination was Venezuela.
Clandestine laboratories: The new face of the threat
While the Ministry of Justice insists that the fentanyl detected in Colombia is exclusively for hospital use, the Narco Caribe news site reveals a potentially parallel reality: the proliferation of clandestine laboratories in rural areas outside state control, where mafias manufacture the synthetic drug.
This warning aligns with expert concern that local production, which is cheaper and more potent, could turn Colombia into a strategic point for exporting fentanyl to the United States and Europe.
U.S. pressure on fentanyl production in Mexico has already prompted the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels to gradually shift their supply chain efforts, and look at Colombia as a target due to its labor, experience, and established drug production and export knowledge, Mexican magazine Proceso reported.
The Caribbean and Central America: New routes, new risks
Fentanyl trafficking is also advancing in Central America and the Caribbean. Countries such as the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico are already facing the emergence of transit routes, rudimentary production, and a worrying increase in poisonings.
In 2023 Costa Rica faced its first major case with the dismantling of clandestine laboratories used for pill manufacturing; the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, has become a focus for joint U.S.-Dominican Republic investigations targeting online fentanyl sales and international distribution.
National strategy and international cooperation: the pending response
Faced with this situation, the Colombian National Police launched in late 2023 the Anticipar para prevenir (Anticipate to Prevent) strategy, which strengthens international cooperation, prevention, shared responsibility, and intelligence to combat this scourge.
Gálvez emphasized the need to “strengthen controls and reduce corruption in Colombia to prevent fentanyl for legal use from becoming a transnational crime.” She insisted that synthetic drugs pose an ongoing challenge that requires coordinated efforts at the national, regional, and hemispheric levels.
The response, she concludes, must go beyond statements and translate into effective cooperation between governments, the private sector, pharmaceutical companies, and commerce, with concrete actions that mitigate the growing risk of illicit drug trafficking in the region.
