Colombia’s security forces have seized more than four metric tons of cocaine and closed 15 drug processing labs within 24 hours, according to the National Police.
In a press release, the police said it seized the cocaine and closed the factories in five operations throughout the country’s national territory.
The largest cocaine shipment, weighing 1,891 kilograms, was found during a routine check of shipping containers in Buenaventura, the country’s largest port for exports.
Another 1,681 of kilos of the illicit drug were confiscated from a boat on the Pacific Ocean, the main trafficking route to North America.
In an operations in the Caribbean port city of Turbo police found another 352 kilos of cocaine.
The cocaine processing plants were found in the southern jungle province of Putumayo, which is also a major producer of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine.
All jungle labs were destroyed, the police said.
Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine exporter. In 2016, the South American country grew enough coca to produce an estimated 800 tons of cocaine.
Illegal armed groups and drug traffickers control much of the processing of coca that is grown by some 100,000 families particularly in lawless areas in the periphery.
