Colombian security forces discovered and destroyed 17 cocaine production laboratories, dismantled an arms factory and captured 10 FARC guerrillas and a coca farmer.
According to Colombia’s anti-narcotics police department, the cocaine labs were found in the jungle of the southeastern Guaviare department.
The Director of Narcotics, General Luis Alberto Perez said, “In the operation we destroyed a camp belonging to the FARC, and confiscated 692 kilos of cocaine, 13 tons of chemicals, 22 boats and two aircraft. In addition we captured 10 people.”
According to Perez, nine of the arrested persons are FARC guerrillas, one is a coca farmer.
The official said that the weekly production of the camp was around 400 kilograms of drugs, with an approximate street value of $440,000.
Elsewhere, an arms factory belonging to the FARC’s Jacobo Arenas Mobile Column, was dismantled in the department of Cauca, in a joint operation between the Colombian army and the Technical Investigation Team (CTI) of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The soldiers and troops from the CTI found a workshop in which a dealer manufactured, assembled and repaired weapons to be used in bombings and attacks against security forces and civilians.
They also captured alias “Chucho Granada,” who was in the service of the FARC for 9 years.
The workshop was in a house located in the village of La Palomera, in the municipality of Santander de Quilichao in northern Cauca.
The security forces confiscated two rifles, seven shotguns, a pistol, a revolver, bullet clips, ammunition for different calibers and mechanisms for long guns.