The drugs were hidden in two trucks carrying scrap — iron ore — that was to be exported to Europe via a Chilean port on the Pacific Ocean.
Bolivian police made the second largest drug seizure in the country’s history earlier this week when they seized 7.2 tons of cocaine bound for Belgium, with an estimated street value of nearly half a billion dollars.
The operation was carried out in Pissiga, a region of the Bolivian highlands on the border with Chile. The drugs were hidden in two trucks carrying scrap — iron ore — that was to be exported to Europe via a Chilean port on the Pacific Ocean.
“If we take into account the price of this controlled substance in the country of destination, we are talking about a hit of 451 million dollars for drug traffickers,” explained Interior Secretary Eduardo del Castillo during a press conference on the operation, which was held earlier this week.
According to the minister, the trafficker escaped from the Latin American country to the US, which he attributed to the leaking of information from the prosecutor’s office to the media.
In January, police announced the seizure of the largest amount of cocaine in Bolivian history, amounting to more than 8 tons, also on the border with Chile.
Bolivia is among the countries with the largest production of coca ash, the raw material in the cocaine production process, in the entire world. The United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ONUDC) has recorded a large increase in the trafficking of this drug from the so-called Southern Cone of Latin America, mainly to Europe.
Source :Skai
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