Colombian army in massive cocaine haul

The Colombian army said today it seized €32.1m worth of cocaine belonging to leftist guerrillas that was hidden in a cove on the outskirts of a city near Venezuela’s border.

Three people with suspected links to the National Liberation Army, ELN, were arrested during the raid on Wednesday, said Capt Sandra Garcia.

“(The cocaine) was the ELN’s. It may have belonged to one of their urban units,” she said.

The cocaine weighed 1.6 tons and plastic containers filled with cocaine-making chemicals were also seized in the operation near Cucuta, 250 miles north-east of Bogota.

Colombia is the world’s leading producer of cocaine. Leftist rebel groups and right-wing militias involved in a decades-old conflict in Colombia all use drug trafficking to fund their operations.