Three held as navy seizes 2,915 kg marijuana in southern Pacific
Colombia's Navy intercepted a boat in the southern Pacific carrying 96 sacks with a net 2,915 kilograms of marijuana, detaining three foreign crew members. The crew, boat and load were taken to Tumaco for testing, with authorities valuing the Central America-bound load at about 18 million dollars.
Colombia’s Navy intercepted a boat crewed by three foreign men in the southern
Pacific.[1]The three men were detained in the operation and their names and
nationalities were not published.[1]Officers took the detainees, the boat and
the load to the Coast Guard Station at Tumaco in the southwest for verification
by prosecution investigators.[1]The detainees must answer before judicial
authorities for alleged trafficking, manufacture or possession of narcotics.[2]
Officers found 96 sacks of marijuana aboard the intercepted boat.[3]Technical
tests by prosecution investigators set the load’s net weight at 2,915 kilograms
of marijuana.[1]Authorities estimated the load’s approximate cost at 18
million dollars on the international illegal market.[2]The boat was
travelling at high speed in the southern Pacific when coastguard units located
it.[1]
The maritime interdiction was carried out by coastguard units with international
support in the general southern Pacific area.[1]Lieutenant Colonel Lincoln
Jaimes, chief of staff of Anti-Narcotics Task Force No. 72 Poseidon, said Navy
personnel intercepted the vessel.[1]The marijuana load was apparently bound
for Central America.[3]The Navy announced the seizure that Sunday.[1]
Photos and video
Navy photo of the intercepted boat's marijuana load published with the seizure report. Photo: Armada de Colombia.Photo details
No separate interception date was published; 23 April 2023 is the Sunday of the Navy announcement and is used as the incident date.
The names and nationalities of the three detained foreigners were not published.
No charges, custody decision or court outcome were reported beyond that the detainees must answer for alleged drug trafficking.
The exact interception point in the southern Pacific was not specified beyond the general area, so Tumaco is used as the regional reference point.
The same La Prensa article mainly reports Nicaraguan and Central American 2021-2022 general-drug and cocaine totals, which are national statistics left out of this cannabis report.
Both corroborating accounts reproduce the EFE and Navy version, so there is no independent non-official account of the interception.
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.
