CICPC officers attached to the Drugs Investigations Division dismantled the organised crime group “El Clan de Los Salas” in Falcón state.[1] The operation ended with one man captured and a load of 274.8 kg of marijuana seized.[1] VTV, which published the CICPC account, called the group a Grupo Estructurado de Delincuencia Organizada (GEDO), Venezuela’s term for a structured organised-crime group.[2]

The procedure was carried out on the national Tucacas-Coro road, in the El Huequito sector of Píritu municipality.[1] During an incursion into wooded areas, officers saw a rural house used as a collection point for sending illicit substances to islands in the Caribbean.[1] The men guarding the place fled when they noticed the police presence.[1] Officers later arrested the owner of the property, a 59-year-old citizen, and were still searching for the other men.[1]

At the house officers seized 11 sacks holding 482 cakes of cannabis sativa, with a gross weight of 274,800 kilograms, that is 274.8 kilograms.[1] They also held an outboard motor, a cattle-branding iron and two drums.[1] The detainee and the evidence were placed at the order of the 21st drugs prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Falcón state.[1]

Notitarde described the seized material as suspected marijuana.[3] Punto de Corte reported that patrols continued in the coastal area to capture the remaining members of the group.[4] Primera Edición Col reported that the cakes were wrapped in synthetic material and packed in 11 sacks with a similar coating, a packaging the report said would be compatible with moving the load in a boat.[5] That outlet reported the working hypothesis that the drug had arrived by sea on the Falcón coast and formed part of a route possibly bound for the Caribbean islands.[5] La Iguana TV reported that the deployment was carried out under the direction of the sectoral vice-president for politics, public security and peace, Captain Diosdado Cabello Rondón.[6]