Police in Colombia seize three tonnes of cocaine

18Bogota, April 16 (IANS/EFE) The police in Colombian Tuesday seized 2,877 kgs of liquid cocaine discovered in the Caribbean port of Cartagena, where seven tonnes of the drug in solid form were confiscated a week ago.

The liquefied cocaine was mixed with dielectric oil – an insulator – and concealed inside an electric transformer set to be shipped to the Guatemalan port of Santo Tomas de Castilla.

The drugs seized Tuesday belonged to Los Urabeños, a gang made up of former right-wing paramilitaries, Colombian police said.

Colombia’s largest-ever seizure of liquid cocaine came just a week days after authorities in the port of Cartagena discovered seven tonnes of cocaine bound for Europe.

The national police recently sent a special investigative team to Cartagena to look into suspicions that some policemen assigned to the port were colluding with drug traffickers, Bogota daily El Tiempo said Tuesday.

The amount of cocaine confiscated at Colombia’s ports has been on the increase since mid-2013, prompting authorities to increase scrutiny of maritime terminals, the daily said.

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