Colombian and Ecuadorean police have destroyed seven drug laboratories and detained seven presumed drug traffickers in a joint operation on the border between the two countries, reported various media Friday.
In the Ecuadorean municipality of San Lorenzo police found raw products meant to be processed on the Colombian side of the border hidden under a woodwork workshop.
“The products were later taken to Colombian territory, to be utilized in the production of narcotic substances,” said Ecuador’s prosecutor general.
On the Colombian side of the border, in the Tumaco municipality in the southwestern Nariño department, authorities localized six laboratories and another six coca plantations “which were immediately destroyed” by Colombian police.
Efrain Rodriguez, a Colombian police colonel, expressed his satisfaction with the operation and said the seven arrested men belonged to a drug gang which operates on both sides of the border. Ecuador’s prosecutor general, Galo Chiriboga, announced he and his Colombian counterpart would reunite in the Ecuadorean city of Esmeraldas, possibly in September, to continue coordinating actions between the two countries in matters of drug trafficking.