32 arrested as Colombian airport operation nets 96.7 kg of marijuana
Colombia's National Police said Operación Jotam, run during September at the country's main airports, seized 96.7 kilograms of marijuana and led to 32 arrests. The same results included 4,921.5 kilograms of cocaine, which is not counted with the marijuana.
🇨🇴 Airports across Colombia, announced in Bogotá · Colombia
Colombia’s National Police announced on 6 October 2026 the results of Operación
Jotam, an anti-narcotics operation run during September at the country’s main
airports.[1]The police said 96.7 kilograms of marijuana were seized in the
operation, alongside 4,921.5 kilograms of cocaine.[1]Thirty-two people were
captured.[1]The operation was led by the Anti-Narcotics Directorate as part
of the Esmeralda strategy, and its director is Brigadier General William Castaño
Ramos.[1]
Officers reinforced controls on passengers, baggage, air cargo, postal shipments
and aircraft, and identified 103 cases linked to drug trafficking.[1]The
police said the networks used export products, souvenir items, luggage, courier
and postal mail, substances attached to passengers’ bodies and ingestion.[1]Separately from the marijuana figure, the police reported 3,500 kg of cocaine
hidden in beer and 1,211 kg mixed with coffee, bound for Toledo and Barcelona in
Spain.[1]
The operation drew on information-sharing with authorities in Spain, the United
States, Canada and Panama, and routes were identified toward Spain, the United
States, France, the Netherlands and Panama.[1]The police statement did not
specify the airports where the seizures took place or the nationalities of the
32 people detained.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
32
Cannabis
96.7 kg
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (96.7 kg)
Activity
Trafficking
Case stage
Under investigation
Region
Colombia
Date
Approximate
Sources
Infobaeinfobae.comESCocaína oculta en café y cervezas; y marihuana en dulces y muñecos: lo que dejó la incautación de cerca de 5 toneladas de droga en Colombia
Open questions the AI reported
The operation ran through September 2026 and no day is given for the marijuana seizures; 30 September 2026 marks the end of the reported period, while the balance was announced on 6 October.
The police statement gives no airport, department or city for the marijuana seizures, so the place is given as the country and coordinates are the Bogotá centre where the announcement was made.
The 96.7 kg of marijuana is a total for the operation and is not broken down by product or seizure; the amounts hidden in sweets and toys reported in the headline are not quantified.
The 4,921.5 kg of cocaine and the 103 trafficking cases belong to the same operation but are not cannabis figures and are left out of the tracker figures.
No charges, court stage or outcome were reported for the 32 people captured.
No street value was published for the marijuana.
Infobae, the police statement and Crónica del Quindío all reproduce the same police release, so they are not independent accounts.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Policía Nacional de Colombia: The National Police's own statement said 4,921.5 kilos of cocaine and 96.7 kilos of marijuana were seized and 32 people captured, in an operation that also detected 103 drug-trafficking cases.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Crónica del Quindío: Crónica del Quindío, citing the same police statement, reported the 96.7 kilos of marijuana, the 32 arrests and the 103 cases.
Left out agencies, as its quotation was not found in Policía Nacional de Colombia.
Left out agency types, as its quotation was not found in Policía Nacional de Colombia.
Left out period, as its quotation was not found in Policía Nacional de Colombia.
Left out setting, as its quotation was not found in Policía Nacional de Colombia.
Army troops seized 1,700 kilograms of pressed marijuana from a van in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca, capturing one person after a pursuit from a military checkpoint. The Third Division attributed the load to the FARC dissidents' Dagoberto Ramos structure and valued the loss to it at more than 425 million pesos.
Colombian army, navy and police units seized about 2,700 kilograms of suspected marijuana from a bongo remolcador river boat at the Hong Kong wharf in Puerto Asís, Putumayo. Authorities linked the load to the Segunda Marquetalia dissidence's Comandos de Frontera, without naming suspects or giving a value.
Colombian police stopped a vehicle in the urban area of Chinchiná, Caldas, carrying 520 kilograms of marijuana and arrested the person caught in the act, immobilising a car with altered identification systems. President Abelardo de la Espriella announced the haul as part of two operations, the other being 358 kilograms of cocaine found in generators at the port of Cartagena.
Colombian National Police investigators seized 7,452 grams of marijuana in the Los Quindos neighbourhood of Armenia, Quindío, along with 98 boxes of clonazepam. Police said the marijuana was meant for sale in minimum doses at sales points around the city and handed the drugs to the local prosecutor's office; no arrests were reported.
