Navy seizes 295 kg of marijuana on Venezuelan boat in Puerto Carreño; 3 held
Colombia's Navy intercepted a Venezuelan boat on the Meta river at Puerto Carreno on 27 February 2024 and seized 295 kg of marijuana. Three Venezuelan crew members were detained and handed to prosecutors with the boat and the drug, valued by the Navy at about $2 million.
On 27 February 2024 Colombia’s Navy announced the seizure of 295 kilograms of
marijuana from a Venezuelan boat on the Meta river at Puerto Carreno, Vichada.[1]A Marine Infantry river-combat boat stopped and inspected the
Venezuelan-registered boat after tracking and investigation work.[2]Officers
first found 12 bundles holding plant material resembling marijuana when they
inspected the Venezuelan-registered boat.[2]The Navy said the launch had no
sailing authorisation and was violating merchant-marine rules.[2]The crew was
two Venezuelan men and one Venezuelan woman, and officers took the boat to the
main dock at Puerto Carreno, where they found 357 rectangular packages inside
the bundles.[3]
Prosecution CTI officers ran a homologated preliminary identification test that
confirmed the 295 kilograms were marijuana.[2]Officers detained the three
crew members and handed them, the boat and the drug to the Attorney General’s
office for custody and later destruction.[3]The Navy valued the load at about
2 million dollars on the illegal international market.[2]
Photos and video
Seized marijuana cargo laid out after the Puerto Carreno river interdiction. Credit: Armada de Colombia via Infobae.Photo details
El Tiempo dates the Navy announcement to midday on 27 February 2024, Caracol Radio dates its account 27 February and Infobae published on 28 February; 27 February 2024 is used as the incident date.
The accounts describe a layered find of 12 bundles, then 357 rectangular packages totalling 295 kg; the report follows that sequence rather than treating the counts as contradictory.
No charges, identities beyond nationality and sex, or court outcome for the three detainees were reported.
The submitted Infobae page also reports a separate 564 kg grease-barrel seizure in Jamundi, Valle del Cauca, by a different agency; that is a different event and is left out of this report.
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.
