Colombian forces seized 1,042 kilos of cocaine hydrochloride from a boat on the Meta River in La Primavera, Vichada. The operation involved the Navy, the Army, the National Police and the Office of the Attorney General. The Defence Ministry announced the seizure on Friday, 9 October. Four arms of the state acted together. Those steering the river route faced the full apparatus.
The state’s river operation
El Tiempo, citing a Navy report, said units of the Orinoquía Naval Force stopped the boat in the Nueva Antioquia area of La Primavera. The man steering it tried to flee when he saw officers. They took the boat to a safe port and searched its cargo, finding three drums of gasoline, an outboard motor and a Starlink satellite antenna, a service of U.S. company SpaceX.
National Police antinarcotics investigators confirmed the substance as cocaine hydrochloride through a preliminary field test, El Tiempo reported. The Office of the Attorney General, known in Colombia as the Fiscalía, is the national prosecution service and leads criminal investigations. This was an operation led by state forces, not a community response or mutual-aid effort.
The Defence Ministry said drug seizures on the Meta River had reached more than 2.5 tonnes in less than 15 days and kept more than 2.5 million doses off the streets. It also said the seizure dealt criminal finances a blow of more than US$56 million, but didn’t explain how it calculated that amount. Those are the ministry’s figures and claims. The article provides no calculation behind them.
Claims, routes and unanswered questions
El Tiempo reported that intelligence information linked the boat to the José Daniel Pérez front of the National Liberation Army, or ELN. That link remains an intelligence-based report cited by the newspaper. No response from the ELN was cited, and officials haven’t said who owned the cocaine or where the load was ultimately headed.
The Meta River crosses Colombia’s eastern plains, known as the Llanos, before joining the Orinoco at the border with Venezuela. El Tiempo said the river has returned to drug-trafficking routes. Military commanders said armed groups use river corridors to move drugs toward Venezuela. Investigators are studying possible links between the latest load and routes toward Central America and Europe; El Tiempo said the drugs were most likely headed for international markets.
NTN24 reported that about 1.5 tonnes had been seized from a boat in the same Nueva Antioquia area on 25 September. At the time, military commanders said armed groups used river corridors to move drugs toward Venezuela. A study published this year found cocaine had become one of Colombia’s biggest earners, the report said. The article offers no account from people living along the route about the seizures or their effects.
Official threats, limited answers
The U.S. State Department blames the ELN for bombings and kidnappings in Colombia and Venezuela. Washington has listed the group as a foreign terrorist organisation since 8 October 1997; the same list has included two breakaway groups of the former FARC guerrillas since 1 December 2021. Under U.S. jurisdiction, knowingly providing money or other material support to a listed group is a federal crime. U.S. banks holding linked funds must freeze them and report them to the Treasury Department.
Colombia’s conservative president, Abelardo De la Espriella, ruled out a hostage exchange with the ELN in September. The report also said the State Department’s 2023 terrorism report described Venezuela as giving the group a safe haven. The Defence Ministry’s own words came with a promise of escalation: “Let there be no doubt: we will keep attacking narco-terrorism in Colombia with all our capabilities,” it wrote in a post on X, reproduced by Semana.
Officials haven’t said whether the man steering the boat or anyone else was arrested, the exact date the boat was stopped, who owned the cocaine or where the load was ultimately headed. The state announced the seizure and its financial estimate. Those details remain unanswered.