COLOMBIA: MILITARY DESTROY TWO COCAINE-PROCESSING PLANTS AND CONFISCATE 1,5000 TONNES OF PURE COCAINE

Record ID: 588585

  • Title: COLOMBIA: MILITARY DESTROY TWO COCAINE-PROCESSING PLANTS AND CONFISCATE 1,5000 TONNES OF PURE COCAINE
  • Date: 14th February 2001
  • Summary: PUERTO ASIS, PUTUMAYO, COLOMBIA (FEBRUARY 12, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV HELICOPTER LANDING NEAR COCA CROPS 0.07 2. MV SOLDIERS WALKING THROUGH COCA FIELDS (2 SHOTS) 0.22 3. SLV SOLDIERS IN DRUG PROCESSING LABORATORY 0.31 4. SCU / MV SOLDIERS WALKING THROUGH COCA GROWING AREA (3 SHOTS) 0.56 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COLOMBIAN ARMY COMMANDER OF ANTI-DRUG TRAFFICKING BATTALION, GENERAL MARIO MONTOYA, SAYING: "We have no doubt that the revenues from this business, buying and selling cocaine base, are some 1000 to 1500-million-dollars, in national and international markets." 1.22 6. SLV SOLDIERS UNLOADING PURE COCAINE; MV SOLDIER GUARDING COCAINE; MV COCAINE LABORATORY WITH COCAINE PILED UP AND IN BLENDING MACHNES; SCU SOLDIERS UNLOADING COCAINE (7 SHOTS) 2.00 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) "The operation was successful. We have uncovered a series of industrial crops of 20, 25 and 30 hectares. The results have surpassed the expected 15000 hectares, we have destroyed 29,500 today." 2.19 8. MV SOLDIER WALKING THROUGH FIELDS; SLV COCAINE LABORATORY EXPLODING; SLV HELICOPTER TAKING OFF (3 SHOTS) 2.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PUERTO ASIS, PUTUMAYO, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVA2C3MV448AXX1JWXH1NE0IYFT5
  • Story Text: The Colombian military has destroyed two
    cocaine-processing plants and confiscated 1,500 tonnes of the
    pure cocaine in a southern jungle zone controlled by leftist
    rebels.

    The operation was part of the U.S.-backed anti-drug "Plan
    Colombia".

    The military operation took place on Monday (February
    12) in Puerto Asis, located on the Ecuadorean border, where
    authorities located more than 56,000 hectares of coca plants.

    According to the military, the find is more than half of
    the coca crops in Colombia - considered to be the world's
    largest cocaine producer. Coca leaves are the raw material
    for cocaine.

    Soldiers destroyed most of the crops and pure cocaine after
    blowing up the processing plant.

    "We have no doubt that the revenues from this business,
    buying and selling cocaine base, are some 1000 to
    1500-million-dollars, in national and international markets,"
    said General Mario Montoya, commander of the anti-drug
    battalion.

    The offensive, targeted at the confiscation of chemicals
    used for the processing of cocaine and the eradication of
    illegal crops in southern Colombia, is part of the
    7.5-billion-dollar U.S.-backed Plan Colombia.

    The United States has pledged 1.3-billion dollars to
    Colombia to help combat the drug trade.

    Leaders in Bogota and Washington accuse the Revolutionary
    Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest rebel
    group with 17,000 members, of making millions off the drug
    trade to help finance their near four-decade war against the
    state.

    Some 35,000 people have lost their lives in the last
    decade alone. Colombia produces 520 tonnes of cocaine
    annually, most of it reaching the United States and Europe.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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