Working with international authorities, Colombia’s police dismantled an international drug trafficking ring of 16 people dedicated to selling cocaine in the United States and Europe.
Following an investigation that started in 2010, the Prosecutor General’s Office collected substantial evidence to prove the drug trafficking ring, headed by Hector Daza, alias “Tarantula,” held cocaine laboratories in various municipalities in the central states of Casanare and Cundinamarca.
The cocaine after being processed was transported over land to the state of Apure in Venezuela, from which point it was flown in fleet of small aircraft to Caribbean states of Honduras, Haiti, Surinam, islands of Guayana and the Dominican Republic.
The drugs were then ultimately smuggled into clandestine markets in the United States and Europe.
Authorities in the investigation uncovered money exchange businesses in state of Cucuta connected to the traffickers as well as investments in luxury homes and cars in Bogota.
In total, four airplanes, six laboratories, 800 kilos of chemical cocaine precursors, and 950 kilos of cocaine were seized by the authorities during the operation.
