The latest phase of the World Navy Operation “Orion” More than 1,400 tons of drugs were seized as a result, including 225 tons of cocaine and 128 tons of marijuana, Navy official Orlando Enrique Grisles told reporters.
In October and November, more than 400 people were arrested in operations targeting oceans, beaches, rivers and ports around the world.
“This is probably the largest seizure of cocaine in transit in Colombian history,” the Colombian president said. Social media.
Security agencies from the United States, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, and several other countries, as well as large-scale sculptures from several international organizations, were included.
According to a Navy statement, the seizure cost drug cartels more than $8.4 billion.
Authorities also seized a wooden and fiberglass semi-submersible en route to Australia with five tons of Colombian cocaine, Gressels said.
It was the third such ship to be discovered in the area, revealing a “new route” of smuggling with sophisticated boats that can travel nearly 10,000 miles without needing to refuel.
A kilo of cocaine sells for up to $240,000 in Australia — about six times the price in the United States, Gressels said.
“It’s a route that is becoming increasingly profitable because prices in Australia are very high,” a security source told AFP.
“Initially, these boats were mainly used to transport drugs out of the country and off the coast of Colombia and then transfer them to ships,” the source added.
“It turns out that these semi-submersibles, sometimes even submarines, are now becoming increasingly sophisticated with very good engineering.”
Semi-aquatic vessels, which cannot be completely submerged, are popular with international drug traffickers because they can sometimes evade detection by law enforcement agencies. Vessels are occasional. Confiscated in Colombian waters en route to the United States, Central America and Europe. The Colombian Navy in June said It seized two “narco-subs” off the country’s Pacific coast that contained nearly 5 tons of cocaine.
Columbia Navy
In February, Colombian authorities are on a search and rescue mission for two missing fishermen. found A “Narco Sub” is loaded with more than 4 tons of cocaine. A few weeks earlier, the Colombian Navy intercepted a semi-submarine. The Pacific was loaded with more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine.
The latest “Orion” operation also uncovered previously unknown alliances between cartels in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru with groups in Europe and Oceania.
“It’s not just a pyramid structure like the cartels once were. Today they’re organized crime networks that are interconnected,” Gressels said.
Colombia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocaine, particularly to the United States and Europe.
Last year, the South American country set a new record for cocaine production and cultivation of the coca leaf from which it is made.