Colombian authorities captured two foreign nationals in an operation in Ipiales, near the Ecuador border.[1] The two were identified only by the aliases ‘Mocho’ and ‘Veneco’.[1] Officers found them during a search of a house in the vereda Saguaran, in the municipality of Ipiales.[2]

Investigators described the pair as alleged collaborators of the residual armed group GAO-r EMC who stored, guarded and coordinated drug shipments to Ecuador through rural corridors.[2] During the search officers seized 512 kilograms of marijuana ready for transport.[1] Police said the drug was moved from the Ipiales area toward Ecuador along mountain paths in rural sectors known as trochas.[1] Officers at the scene said the marijuana had come from rural areas of northern Cauca, was kept in storehouses of this kind in Ipiales, and was then taken out toward Ecuador.[3]

The operation was a joint effort by Criminal Investigation Section units and the Army under the coordination of the Attorney General’s Office, as part of the national Plan Ofensiva Territorial border strategy.[2] The Army said the two detainees faced a prison term of more than four years on the flagrancy evidence.[3]