Colombian authorities announced the capture of 10 members of a cocaine smuggling ring, allegedly linked to ‘Los Rastrojos‘, working through Bogota’s El Dorado international airport.
The Ministry of Defense reported that the 10 men, six of whom were officials of the airport, are accused of using the luggage of unknowing passengers traveling to Spain and Holland to ship anything between five and 20 kilograms of cocaine at a time.
The suitcases containing the drug would be marked with distinct stickers, making them identifiable by custom officers in Spain linked to the same smuggling organization. In the case of shipments to Holland, boxes of flowers would be stuffed with packages of cocaine and distinguished in the same way.
The Ministry implemented “Operation Decorum”, a six-month long investigation led by the Counter Narcotic Intelligence Group. The Ministry linked the cocaine to the infamous drug smuggling gang “Los Rastrojos” whose operations spread throughout all of Colombia, North America and Europe.
According to research carried out by the Ministry of Defense the officials could receive anything between $8,400 and $11,200 for each transaction.
As well as the 10 arrests, Colombian authorities managed to seize 128 pounds of the drug.