Bogotá. The Minister of National Defense, Luis Carlos Villegas, accompanied by Admiral Ernesto Duran, commander of the National Navy, on Wednesday morning informed in a press conference about the largest cocaine discovery in European territory.
This is the operation against the transnational drug trafficking organizations that commit crimes in the Gulf of Urabá and Spain, which resulted in the discovery of about nine tons of cocaine hydrochloride and the capture of five members of an international network in charge of receiving the drug in Algeciras, Spain.
The Minister of Defense said that: "The Gulf cartel has lost between November 2017 and April 2018 more than 20 tons of pure cocaine: 5.7 in Algeciras, in November; almost 6 in Turbo, in March; and now in Spain, another 9 ".
The operation was coordinated and conducted by units of the National Navy and members of the Technical Investigation Corps of the Attorney General's Office, with cooperation of the Spanish Government.
The operation was carried out in the port of Algeciras - Spain, after the National Navy alerted the European authorities about the arrival of a container with the illicit cargo, aboard the Singapore ship "Lucie Schulte", which had left 15 days ago the Gulf of Urabá in Antioquia, where drug trafficking organizations contaminated an export bananas container.
"I want to thank and congratulate the National Navy and the CTI of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, who with the support of the governments of Spain and other European countries, with our information, followed this container which ultimately found in Algeciras" revealed Villegas.
"This blow to the "Clan del Golfo " is very important, because it proves that they lack the capacity to put large shipments of coca in international markets with impunity," the Minister added. “Today these large shipments are followed from the moment they start accumulating until they are found by the authorities. "
The anti-narcotics authorities estimate that the cargo has a cost of more than € 450 million, that is to say close to USD500 million, in the European market; this money won’t enter the funds of the organized crime.
Finally, the head of the defense, exalted the work of the National Navy, since "these operations are made in the Caribbean, along with many made in the Pacific, in coordination with Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, the united states and recently with Canada, with whom it was seized by the US, Mexico and our collaboration, 12 tons of cocaine this week in the Pacific Ocean. "
Source: Ministry of Defense.
