Police seized an arsenal of weaponry allegedly belonging to Colombian organized crime gang “Los Urabeños,” engaged in an alleged battle to the death with “Los Rastrojos” gang.
According to a report by the police 71 grenades, 790 cartridges and two camouflage uniforms were seized in a hotel in Colombia’s western Antioquia region that were in the possession of an alleged member of Los Urabeños, a neo-paramilitary group from northern Colombia that has violently taken control of the country’s Caribbean coast funded with money made from drug trafficking, extortion and contract killings.
The police report said that the weaponry was intended to be used against “selective targets” in towns around the region in the coming days.
Los Urabeños, formed after the demobilization of the AUC paramilitary group, has been engaged in a bloody battle with Medellin based crime group Los Rastrojos, also descended from the AUC.
In 2007 and 2009 clashes between the gangs resulted in thousands of deaths in Colombia’s Antioquia and Cordoba departments.
Colombian media reports estimated that Los Urabeños grew to between 1,300 and 2,000 fighters during 2012.
Recently the police have been engaged in a coordinated struggle against the two groups decimating their ranks, with almost 40 members of Los Urabeños arrested over the past week and 70 arrested since the start of this year.
Los Ratrojos has also suffered severe blows due to increased pressure from Colombia’s security forces with some 337 of its members captured by police so far this year according to news site CMI, and 300 of its members attempted surrender at the beginning of September, due to the arrest of a number of its key commanders.
The Rastrojos is thought to have between 1,200 and 1,600 members. They have been known to control drug trafficking routes to the Pacific and Venezuela and allegedly have a pact with the FARC guerrilla group.