Venezuelan authorities announced on 3 March the seizure of 457 kg of marijuana packed in 838 panels on the coast of Falcon state in the Caribbean Sea.[1] The armed forces said the 838 marijuana panels were found abandoned during a coastal patrol in Falcon state and weighed 456.725 kg.[2]

Seizures of marijuana shipments on Venezuela’s coast and along its border zone position Venezuela as an important corridor for a particular type of Colombian cannabis flooding regional markets.[1] Regional demand for Colombian-produced marijuana, especially creepy marijuana with high THC levels, is driving these large-scale seizures in Venezuela.[1] Once the marijuana enters Venezuelan territory, carriers move it to the states of Falcon, Sucre, or Nueva Esparta to be loaded onto boats bound for Caribbean markets.[1]

Venezuela is not a large-scale cannabis cultivating country, so much of the drug moving through and seized in the country is produced and dispatched from Colombia, specifically from the mountains of northern Cauca department.[1] To cross into Venezuela, creepy marijuana grown in the mountains of northern Cauca uses cities such as Bogota or Medellin as storage points before distribution toward border departments, above all Norte de Santander, La Guajira and Vichada.[1]