Anti-drug police have arrested 15 people in raids to break up a drug trafficking network in north Colombia that used prostitutes to convince sailors to carry cocaine.
General Luis Alberto of the anti-drugs police in the port city of Buenaventura told journalists that alleged criminal Sandra Milena Ramirez, alias “La Flaca,” recruited prostitutes who, “provided sexual services to sailors and convinced them to let drugs on board.”
He added, “Sailors are characterized as having a love in every port, and the work of this lady was to break down their will through sex.”
According to police, the prostitutes told the sailors the 600-1100lb containers were “contaminated” with alkaloids.
In other cases the women gave sailors small packages weighing less than 110lb.
Most of the drugs were loaded onto boats departing from Buenaventura, Colombia’s main Pacific coast port, and heading to various destinations including Mexico, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Police arrested eleven people in Buenaventura, including Ramirez and Efren Mina Caicedo, alias “El Alto”, who is allegedly the leader of the network and in the pay of neo-paramilitary group Los Rastrojos. They arrested three more in the department of Cali and one in Pereira.
The arrests were a result of a year-long investigation involving the national Anti-narcotics police in combination with the Prosecutor General and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency from the British police.
