Sniffer dogs help discover 14 tons of cocaine in Colombia port, largest seizure in a decade

Colombia made its biggest cocaine bust in a decade, authorities announced Friday, with 14 tons confiscated at its main Pacific port amid tensions with Washington, which has called Bogotá’s anti-drug policies insufficient. Authorities said a canine team helped uncover the massive amount of hidden drugs.

The seizure in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country comes as the White House has hit President Gustavo Petro with financial sanctions and took Colombia out of list of allies in the war on drugs.

The cocaine, stored in dozens of 110-pound bags inside a warehouse, was “camouflaged” in a mixture with plaster, the Ministry of Defense published in X, calling it a “historic blow against drug trafficking.”

The ministry released a video of a sniffer dog reacting to the bags and images of officers using an electronic device to test the contents. Authorities said the seizure prevented the circulation of 35 million doses of cocaine valued at more than $388 million.

It was “the largest seizure made by the Colombian police in the last decade,” said Petro, whose term ends in nine months.

The operation was carried out, “without a single death,” according to Petro, in the southwestern port of Buenaventura, a strategic departure point for Colombian cocaine.

Petro is critical of Donald Trump’s anti-drug strategy and has rejected as “extrajudicial executions” the attacks that the US president has authorized against Vessels suspected of transporting drugs. in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

in a exclusive conversation In October, on News themezone, Petro claimed that some of those killed by US attacks on suspected drug ships were innocent civilians and reiterated his charge that the attacks violate international law.

“Killing company workers is easy,” Petro told News themezone. “But if you want to be effective, you have to capture the bosses of the company.”

The White House has denied that innocent civilians were killed in the attacks on ships.

The DEA says about 90% of the cocaine coming into the United States comes from Colombia, and Trump has blamed Petro, saying he has failed to control the drug cartels operating in his country.

Colombia regularly breaks its own annual record for coca leaf cultivation and powder cocaine production.

It has some 625,000 hectares dedicated to drug cultivation and produces at least 2,600 tons of cocaine, according to United Nations figures for 2023, the most recent available.

Petro considers Trump’s sanctions unfair and claims that record seizures have been made during his administration. Petro posted a graph on social media on Friday night, which purports to show a steady increase in cocaine seizures in the country over the past six years.

Earlier this week, Colombian navy divers in a Pacific coast port discovered more 450 pounds of cocaine under a ship that was preparing to set sail for Europe.

That seizure came just days after the Navy announced it had seized more than seven tons of drugs from two speedboats and a semi-submersible boat, or so-called “narcosubmarines” also in the Pacific Ocean.