Three people suspected to be guerrillas from Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, were captured Monday while hoarding nearly $585,000 in plastic barrels, according to Colombia’s National Army.
The three suspects, two men and a woman reportedly from the FARC’s 48th Front, were captured while attempting to move four plastic barrels containing more than half a million dollars in cash in the rural outskirts of San Miguel, a municipality in the southwestern Colombian state of Putumayo, according to the National Army.
The 6th division of the National Army discovered the suspects while patrolling the San Miguel area in search of alias “Robledo,” leader of the FARC’s 48th Front. The group is allegedly responsible for recent attacks wherein armed rebels forced truck drivers to spill thousands of barrels of crude oil onto roads in Putumayo causing ecological harm, according to Colombia’s La Vanguardia newspaper.
MORE: ‘FARC’ force trucks to spill crude oil in southwest Colombia
The seized money, which the National Army claims is the biggest blow to the illicit finances of the FARC’s Southern Block this year, allegedly came from the rebel group’s extortion of local farmers and businesses, as well as profits from drug trafficking.
San Miguel, Putumayo
Sources
- Ejército incauta más de mil millones de pesos y captura a guerrilleros del Frente 48 de las Farc (National Army of Colombia)
- Descubren guaca de las Farc con más de 1.000 millones de pesos (Vanguardia)
