A transnational structure allegedly involved in cocaine shipments from the Colombian Caribbean to Central America was dismantled

• 25 people were arrested in operations carried out in Antioquia, Chocó, Sucre and Magdalena.
• The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, in the company of military forces, led an operation from an Advanced Operations Military Base (Base de Operaciones Avanzada BOA) in Cartagena.

The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado; in the company of the Ministry of Defense, Diego Molano Aponte; and the commander of the Caribbean Naval Force, Rear Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo Obregón, monitored the execution of an operation against a criminal network allegedly linked to the so-called ‘Clan del Golfo’ and also allegedly responsible for the shipment of cocaine from Golfo de Urabá to Central America.

Investigators of the Special Directorate against Drug Trafficking- Office of the Attorney General, in a joint work with the Navy, the Seventeenth Brigade of the National Army and the Colombian Air Force, arrested 25 alleged members of this organization in proceedings carried out in Turbo, Apartadó and Carepa (Antioquia); Acandí (Chocó), Sincelejo (Sucre) and Santa Marta (Magdalena).

“It was a joint state work in this specific case. This is a step forward among the multiplicity of operations that have been carried out in the country. It is an operation that hits the so-called ‘Clan del Golfo” in both coasts of Golfo of Urabá, the eastern and the western part”, said the Attorney General.

As a result of this mega-operation denominated Motún, the alleged ringleader and investor alias ‘El Animal’, who would be the coordinator of the national and international maritime transportation of the drugs was found. Likewise, other people who would be in charge of coordinating the shipment and custody of cargos to the coasts and preparing the caches in the boats were arrested.

The investigations revealed that this structure paid the residual groups in Cauca and Valle del Cauca for cocaine; and it allegedly had at its disposal a network of boatmen, who had knowledge of maritime activities and different navigation routes.

A prosecutor of the Special Directorate against Drug Trafficking will charge people arrested with trafficking, manufacture or possession of drugs, and conspiracy to commit a crime.

“All this, leads the Office of the Attorney General to be part of the rupture of the criminal regional corridors used by these organizations involved in a mixture of drug trafficking and micro-trafficking activities in different parts of the national territory,” concluded the Attorney General.

In five years, 19 seizures have carried out to this organization in Panama and Colombia. The recent ones took place 36 hours ago. Two speedboats were intercepted in Necoclí (Antioquia) transporting about three tons of cocaine. As a result of the operation, 8 people were arrested.

The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.

The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out the criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.