On Friday, 9 October, Colombian forces seized 1,042 kilos of cocaine hydrochloride from a boat on the Meta River. The Defence Ministry said the operation struck criminal finances by more than US$56 million, but it didn’t explain how it calculated that figure. Officials haven’t identified the cocaine’s owner or where the load was ultimately headed.
The claimed financial blow
The Defence Ministry announced the seizure on Friday, 9 October. The Navy, Army, National Police and Office of the Attorney General took part, the ministry said. It said the seizure brought drug seizures on the Meta River to more than 2.5 tonnes and kept more than 2.5 million doses off the streets.
“Let there be no doubt: we will keep attacking narco-terrorism in Colombia with all our capabilities,” the ministry wrote in a post on X, reproduced by Bogotá news magazine Semana. The ministry called the operation a strike on criminal finances, but didn’t provide the calculation behind its US$56 million figure.
El Tiempo, citing a Navy report, said units of the Orinoquía Naval Force stopped the boat in the Nueva Antioquia area of La Primavera, Vichada. The man steering it tried to escape when he saw officers. Officers moved the boat to a safe port to check its cargo.
They found 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.
A route toward international markets
El Tiempo said intelligence information linked the boat to the José Daniel Pérez front of the National Liberation Army, or ELN. That reported connection rests on intelligence information the newspaper cited; no response from the ELN was reported. Officials haven’t said whether the man steering the boat or anyone else was arrested.
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. NTN24 reported that about 1.5 tonnes had been seized from a boat in the same Nueva Antioquia area on 25 September. 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. The report said a study published this year found that cocaine had become one of Colombia’s biggest earners. The article doesn’t identify the people or businesses set to receive proceeds from this shipment.
State action and unanswered questions
The U.S. State Department has listed the ELN 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. Knowingly providing money or other material support to a listed group is a federal crime for anyone under U.S. jurisdiction; U.S. banks holding funds linked to a listed group 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. In its 2023 terrorism report, the State Department said Venezuela gave the group a safe haven. The report on the seizure cited no proposed reform, labor action or organized response by workers or residents along the river.
Authorities still haven’t disclosed the exact date the boat was stopped, the cocaine’s owner or its final destination. The reported ELN link remains based on intelligence El Tiempo cited, while investigators continue examining possible routes toward international markets.