© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Colombian Navy officers unload seized packages of cocaine from two semi-submersible vessels certain for Central America, in Tumaco, Colombia December 27, 2022. Courtesy of Colombian Navy/Handout by way of REUTERS/File Picture
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia seized extra cocaine in 2022 than another 12 months on file, the South American nation’s protection ministry reported Saturday.
Safety forces seized 671 tonnes of the drug final 12 months, surpassing the 2021 complete by about 1.7 tonnes.
“It’s essential to fight the illicit revenue that comes from drug trafficking, which generates evil in our nation,” mentioned Protection Minister Ivan Velasquez, quoted within the ministry’s assertion. He credited authorities for the “nice outcomes.”
The info confirmed that Narino, Bolivar and Valle del Cauca provinces had been the location of essentially the most seizures final 12 months.
Cocaine manufacturing and trafficking are thought-about the principle driver of an virtually six-decade armed battle in Colombia that has left greater than 450,000 useless and tens of millions displaced.
The guerilla group Nationwide Liberation Military, dissidents from the FARC insurgent group and prison gangs made up of former right-wing paramilitaries have all been implicated in drug trafficking.
Cocaine seizures had been 505 tonnes in 2020 and 428 tonnes in 2019.