A speedboat carrying over 800 pounds of cocaine worth an astonishing $13 million has been seized by Navy interceptors in the Caribbean.
The high-speed craft with a crew of four suspects was stopped off Barranquilla, Colombia.
Navy crew spotted bags ejected from the speedboat as they approached.
They managed to recover 16 of the bags, which were found stuffed with more than 400 small packets.
Armada Colombia/Zenger
Tests later confirmed that the packages contained 386.4 kilograms (852 pounds) of cocaine hydrochloride (powder cocaine).
Four men – three Jamaican nationals and a Venezuelan – were arrested.
The black market value of the seized loot was estimated at over $13 million.
It is believed that the ship was en route to Central America.
In a statement obtained by Zenger News on Sunday, the Colombian Navy said: “The Colombian Navy, as part of an offensive operation against drug trafficking organizations that commit crimes in the Caribbean and together with the army of the Colombian Air Force successfully interdicted a ‘Go Fast’ type vessel armed by four individuals who intended to reach Central America with over 380 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride.
“The result came after units of the Colombian Navy, with support from a Colombian Air Force aircraft, tracked down a suspicious vessel that was moving through Colombian Caribbean waters, apparently carrying substances narcotics.
“With the deployment of a rapid reaction unit from the Santa Marta Coast Guard Station and a naval air unit from the Colombian Navy, maritime interdiction was achieved 4.2 nautical miles from Puerto Velero (Atlantic After noticing the presence of the authorities, the four subjects aboard the boat threw an undetermined number of packages into the sea.
Armada Colombia/Zenger
“The crew members of the Colombian Navy managed to recover 16 bags inside which 407 rectangular packages were found, which were subjected to the preliminary identification tests approved by the Technical Investigation Corps, showing positive for 386.4 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride The personnel captured, including three Jamaicans and one of Venezuelan nationality, as well as the material seized, were made available to the competent authorities.
“This hiding place would reach a cost on the international illegal market of more than 13 million dollars, a figure which, thanks to the energetic action of the Caribbean Naval Force, will stop entering the finances of the drug trafficking organizations that are committing crimes in the Colombian Caribbean, and nearly a million doses will no longer be marketed on the streets of the world.
“The Colombian Navy will continue to develop joint, coordinated and combined operations that allow the fight against the scourge of drug trafficking and its related crimes, affecting all the links of its financial chain and closing maritime, air and land spaces to the trafficking in illicit substances on national territory”.
Colombia is considered the largest cocaine producer in the world, accounting for two-thirds of the global area dedicated to coca bush cultivation and cocaine production.
This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.
