Army troops and police units seized 590 kilograms of marijuana in Valle del Cauca department.[1] The operation was carried out by the Comando Contra el Narcotráfico y Amenazas (Conat), the army’s command against drug trafficking and transnational threats, on the road linking the town of Pradera with the Pacific port of Buenaventura.[1]

The load was carried in a vehicle adapted to conceal the drug, and officers arrested the driver during the operation.[1] The driver told officers he had taken part because of a debt he owed to the Iván Mordisco dissidents operating in the area.[1] The driver was handed to the judicial authorities on suspicion of the crime of trafficking, manufacturing or carrying narcotics.[1] Preliminary investigations indicated the marijuana belonged to the Dagoberto Ramos Ortiz structure and, according to military sources, had been sent from Toribío in northern Cauca with Panama as its destination.[1]

The army later said the shipment left Toribío for Buenaventura, where it was stored in warehouses until enough had been gathered to move it to Panama on semi-submersibles.[2]

The army said the operation kept about 24,500 doses of marijuana off international markets.[1] The army said investigators believe the final leg of the journey would use semi-submersible vessels, a method it said had recurred on routes across the Pacific toward Central America and the Caribbean.[1] The army reported the seizure in a statement issued on Saturday, without saying whether the driver had been charged before a court.[2]