Colombian Military Seizes Over 700 Kilos From FARC-EP
The war on drugs continues across the globe, with law enforcement has been on a worldwide mission of eradicating the international flow of drugs. Colombia, a major producer of cocaine, is at implicit in many of the coke seizures that transpire. On Sunday, the Colombian military made a huge seizure of a load belonging to Colombian paramilitary group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army, better known as FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo).
According to FOX News Latino, the army seized a total of 762 kilos of cocaine found at a laboratory large enough to house 40 people. Additionally, soldiers found 188 pounds of cocaine base and a sizable amount of materials used to produce the drug. The soldiers destroyed the lab, which was reportedly built by FARC’s 48th Front “with the assistance of foreign drug cartels.” According to Gen. Sergio Alberto Tafur, the commander of the regimen that made the seizure, cocaine shipments “leave for the United States and Europe via the Pacific Ocean, utilizing transportation corridors on the border with Ecuador,”
FARC-EP has been in existence since 1964. Back then, it was formed as a guerilla movement that served as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, after the the Colombian military attacked rural communist territories in the aftermath of the decade-long (1948-1958) Colombian civil war, known as “La Violencia.” Today, in addition to drug trafficking, FARC is funded through ransoms from kidnappings, illegal mining, extortion.and taxation of various forms of economic activity.
Read here about how the Coast Guard’s record breaking cocaine seizures tally still isn’t enough.
