Colombian authorities arrested 52 faces allegedly linked to an international drug-trafficking ring during a wide-scale operation with the support of law enforcement agencies from several other countries, including the US, France, Spain and Greece, the Defense Ministry in Bogota announced Wednesday.

Among the persons arrested are 34 suspects against whom “requests for extradition in force” are pending, clarified the Minister of Defense of Colombia, Ivan Velazquez.

After a preliminary investigation that lasted two years, Colombian authorities arrested dozens of suspects during this operation, which lasted two months. As part of the same operation, “four tons of cocaine, worth $134 million,” were seized, according to Mr. Velasquez.

In a press release that it published, the Ministry of Defense of Colombia underlined that the persons arrested “were linked to Mexican international criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel, New Generation of Jalisco, Setas, as well as gangs operating in Europe, such as Clan Devesa”.

A Slovak national, Michal Pis, who is accused of trafficking methamphetamines in his country, the Czech Republic and Germany, is among those arrested. Similarly, Mexican nationals Carlos Omar Felix and Silvano Francisco Mariano, who are accused of being involved in the trafficking of fentanyl destined for the US market.

Despite the fact that the so-called war on drugs has lasted 40 years, Colombia remains the country with the largest production of cocaine in the world and the USA remains the country with the largest consumption of this substance.

Drug trafficking is a key source of funding for armed groups involved in Colombia’s six-decade-long civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.