COLOMBIA – Colombian authorities have made their largest cocaine bust in a decade, confiscating 14 tonnes at its main Pacific port, as President Gustavo Petro continues to fight back against claims from the administration of United States President Donald Trump of his complicity in the drug trade.
The seizure in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country came as Bolivia announced the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will be invited back into the country, 17 years after being expelled, to bolster the new conservative government’s anti-cocaine efforts.
Colombia’s Ministry of Defence hailed the “historic blow” to drug traffickers on Friday, as it announced it had seized dozens of 50-kilogramme (110-pound) sacks of cocaine inside a warehouse in the southwestern port of Buenaventura, a strategic departure point for Colombian cocaine. “The drug was camouflaged under the method of being mixed with plaster”, it said, adding that the container was headed for the Netherlands.
“With this seizure, we prevented the circulation of 35 million doses of cocaine and impacted the finances of those structures by more than $388.9m”. Petro confirmed the seizure in a post on X, calling it the largest by the Colombian police “in the last decade” as he posted a video of officers and canines raiding the warehouse in the Port of Buenaventura. He added that the operation was carried out “without a single death”.
The seizure comes as the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Bogota over recent months, branding its anti-drug policies insufficient and threatening to remove Colombia from its list of allies in its war on drugs. (Aljazeera)
