Police and the military have seized 28.5 tonnes of cocaine and 7.5 tonnes of marijuana so far this year, according to official figures.
Venezuelan authorities seized 36 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine, in the first eight months of 2022, an amount increased by almost a third compared to the same period in 2021, the armed forces announced.
“Seizures increased by 29.16%” during the first eight months of this year compared to last year, General Domingo Hernandez Lares told the press, speaking in the coastal city of Tiragia, in the state of Falcon (northwest).
Police and the military have seized 28.5 tonnes of cocaine and 7.5 tonnes of marijuana so far this year, according to official figures.
A fishing boat with a crew of 12 carrying 2.8 tons of marijuana and cocaine was intercepted on Saturday in this area.
🇻🇪#Enterate || En labores de patrullaje y escudriñamiento, efectivos de nuestra #FANB localaron embarcación con (89) bultos de drogas entre Marihuana y Cocaine, dejando como resultado (12) tripulantes detenidos ¡Venezuela no será platforma ni ruta del narcotráfico! pic.twitter.com/tc2GpEDMe9
— MG. Alfredo Parra Yarza (@arparrayarza) September 5, 2022
The 12 crew members were recruited in Alta Wajira, in the north of neighboring Colombia, according to General Hernandez Lares. He clarified that the traffickers’ modus operandi is to head from Alta Wajira along the coast of Venezuela “into international waters” from there “to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao” with purpose “to reach Martinique”.
Security forces arrested 6,155 suspects, according to the official tally of anti-trafficking operations involving some 25,000 of their members.
Fifty-seven illegal airports and 27 aircraft used for drug trafficking were also destroyed.
📢 RT || GJ. @dhernandezlarez:
Venezuela is a territory free of endemic plantations such as marihuana and cocaine, we will not permit plantations or structures associated with narcotrafficking in our country. #FANB Deplesgada en la operation Escudo Bolivariano en el estado Sucre. pic.twitter.com/W29zSysAbN— CEOFANB (@libertad003) August 29, 2022
The traffickers intend to use Venezuela as a platform to traffic the drugs and “traffick them to the US and Europe”.
Venezuela closed its sea border with the Dutch islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao in February 2019, as well as its land border with Colombia (allowing only pedestrian crossing) during the crisis that followed the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro in 2018.
The US government, which has not recognized Mr Maduro’s victory, has imposed sanctions on senior Venezuelan officials, accusing some of them of involvement in drug trafficking.
RES-EMP
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