03/06/2026, 07:1903/06/2026, 07:19
Colombia has destroyed several cocaine laboratories in a joint anti-drug operation with the US and Ecuador. “When nations join together, the criminals lose,” wrote Colombia’s Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez on the X platform.
A total of five systems in the departments of Putumayo and Nariño in the southwest of the country near the border with Ecuador were destroyed. Two laboratories produced cocaine and three others processed coca paste. The production capacity was up to seven tons of cocaine per month. The drug was smuggled via Ecuador to Central America and the USA. “These infrastructures were an important link in the transnational drug trade,” said Sánchez.
During the operation, the authorities said they confiscated around 1.3 tons of cocaine as well as large quantities of chemical precursors for its production.
Colombia is considered the world’s largest producer of cocaine. A large part of the drug is smuggled via neighboring countries such as Ecuador or via sea routes to North America and Europe. (hkl/sda/dpa)