Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos congratulated the state police with the largest drugs haul in a single police operation. An offensive against the powerful Gulf Clan, a drug trafficking gang, was more than successful, policemen seized 12 tons of cocaine on Wednesday.
The drug trafficking is the most painful problem of Colombia, but police do their work day by day. On Wednesday, almost 400 anti-drug police took part in air and land raids on four estates in the Uraba region in the northeastern department of Antioquia. According to police chief Jorge Nieto, the important operation was preceded by a year of investigations and crowned by success – policemen seized 12 tons.
All the drugs belonged to odious criminal personality Otoniel (Dairo Úsuga), a leader of the Gulf Clan, one of Colombia’s most dangerous criminal organisations.
“Never before, since we began more than 40 years ago to fight against drug trafficking, have we made a seizure of this magnitude,”
President Santos told journalists during the briefing.
Colombian eternal problem is cocaine
Colombian government does its best to pacify the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), this illegal armed actor has sought to take over drug trafficking operations in zones where FARC rebels used to live and operate earlier.
President Santos stressed there will be no let-up in his government’s campaign against the Gulf Clan, after the capture of 28 members of the gang in an operation by security forces, code-named “Odyssey,” in Antioquia in September. That operation raised to 362 tons the amount of cocaine seized in Colombia so far this year, surpassing 317 tons in 2016.
Another problem for Argentina is money laundry, the Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said the country ‘is no longer a friendly country for neither drug trafficking nor for money laundering.’
