On Sunday, the Colombian Navy reported in a statement about the seizure of the “first semi-submersible of the year” in this country.
The 15 meter long and gray drug submarine was intercepted in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near the port of Buenaventura (West). He had 795 kilos of cocaine with him. The three people who were on it were arrested.
On Saturday, Ecuadorian armed forces announced the seizure of another semi-submersible carrying nearly three tons of cocaine, also traveling through the Pacific. The drug submarine, like the one seized in Colombia, is gray and 15 meters long.
The operation was carried out approximately 60 kilometers off the coast of Esmeraldas (northwest Ecuador).
According to a statement from the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, the operation was carried out in collaboration with that country's police and the Colombian Navy. Three Colombian citizens were arrested on board the ship.
According to a UN report, 2022 was a record year for drug cultivation in Colombia. Cultivation of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine production, increased by 13% in this country to 230,000 hectares.
Ecuador ended 2023 with an unprecedented rate of 46 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants and began 2024 with 100,000 homicidesto explain internal armed conflict of the government of Daniel Noboa against the criminal gangs that are part of the international drug trafficking chain.