Over a thousand kilograms of recent cocaine seizures and a milestone drop in Colombian narco-flights mark big gains victories in the international fight against drug trafficking.
Over a thousand kilograms of recent cocaine seizures and a milestone drop in Colombian narco-flights mark big gains victories in the international fight against drug trafficking.
On October 25, Nicaraguan security forces working in support of Operation MARTILLO arrested three suspected drug smugglers and seized about 308 kilograms of cocaine.
A suspicious vessel was traveling about 70 kilometers east of Nicaragua’s coast, south of Corn Island, when Nicaraguan security forces made the interdiction and seized 11 bales of cocaine, which had a street value of $9.24 million (USD), as well as two AK-47 rifles.
Between July and October, security forces with Operation MARTILLO seized about 14 tons of cocaine, worth an estimated $423 million (USD). The operation combines the forces of 10 countries in the Americas – Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Canada, and the United States – along with France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. These countries work together to share information and use their air, land, and maritime forces to counter illicit trafficking by limiting the use of Central America as a transit area. At-sea interdictions are highly coordinated, with the security forces of the participating countries working together to identify, stop, and search suspicious vessels.
Spanish police seize 700 kilograms of cocaine coming from Guatemala
Meanwhile, on November 4, employees working at a Spanish storage and freight logistics company were expecting to unload a container filled with food additives but were surprised to discover something else: 700 kilograms of cocaine shipped from a regular client in Guatemala.
Catalan police believe the narco-traffickers put the cocaine into the container without informing the sender, planning to remove the drugs in Spain before the container reached its destination. However, the narco-traffickers failed to retrieve the cocaine, leaving the factory owner surprised.
“We were unloading the contents when we noticed several bundles of a substance that wasn’t supposed to be there,” he told Spanish daily El País.
The owner declined to be identified by name.
The cocaine was sorted into 350 bricks, each weighing two kilograms, wrapped in plastic and divided among 18 sports bags.
“In the more than 50 years that I’ve worked in this sector, this is the first time I’ve had something like this happen to me,” he told El País.
Narco-flights in Colombia decrease by 99 percent over a decade
Narco-flights in Colombia have decreased by 99 percent since 2004, the federal government recently announced. Colombian security forces have spotted six narco-planes in the country’s air space so far in 2014, according to the Colombian Air Force Press Office.
The decrease in narco-flights is attributable to effective operations by the Colombian military and police, who have dismantled several narco-trafficking rings; improved aerial surveillance; cooperated with neighboring countries in the fight against transnational crime; and carried out strong drug interdiction policies put in place by the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos.
Over a thousand kilograms of recent cocaine seizures and a milestone drop in Colombian narco-flights mark big gains victories in the international fight against drug trafficking.
On October 25, Nicaraguan security forces working in support of Operation MARTILLO arrested three suspected drug smugglers and seized about 308 kilograms of cocaine.
A suspicious vessel was traveling about 70 kilometers east of Nicaragua’s coast, south of Corn Island, when Nicaraguan security forces made the interdiction and seized 11 bales of cocaine, which had a street value of $9.24 million (USD), as well as two AK-47 rifles.
Between July and October, security forces with Operation MARTILLO seized about 14 tons of cocaine, worth an estimated $423 million (USD). The operation combines the forces of 10 countries in the Americas – Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Canada, and the United States – along with France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. These countries work together to share information and use their air, land, and maritime forces to counter illicit trafficking by limiting the use of Central America as a transit area. At-sea interdictions are highly coordinated, with the security forces of the participating countries working together to identify, stop, and search suspicious vessels.
Spanish police seize 700 kilograms of cocaine coming from Guatemala
Meanwhile, on November 4, employees working at a Spanish storage and freight logistics company were expecting to unload a container filled with food additives but were surprised to discover something else: 700 kilograms of cocaine shipped from a regular client in Guatemala.
Catalan police believe the narco-traffickers put the cocaine into the container without informing the sender, planning to remove the drugs in Spain before the container reached its destination. However, the narco-traffickers failed to retrieve the cocaine, leaving the factory owner surprised.
“We were unloading the contents when we noticed several bundles of a substance that wasn’t supposed to be there,” he told Spanish daily El País.
The owner declined to be identified by name.
The cocaine was sorted into 350 bricks, each weighing two kilograms, wrapped in plastic and divided among 18 sports bags.
“In the more than 50 years that I’ve worked in this sector, this is the first time I’ve had something like this happen to me,” he told El País.
Narco-flights in Colombia decrease by 99 percent over a decade
Narco-flights in Colombia have decreased by 99 percent since 2004, the federal government recently announced. Colombian security forces have spotted six narco-planes in the country’s air space so far in 2014, according to the Colombian Air Force Press Office.
The decrease in narco-flights is attributable to effective operations by the Colombian military and police, who have dismantled several narco-trafficking rings; improved aerial surveillance; cooperated with neighboring countries in the fight against transnational crime; and carried out strong drug interdiction policies put in place by the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos.