Prosecutor General accuses Colombia of wanting to use Venezuela for drug “shipments”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Venezuela’s prosecutor general, Tarek Saab, on Thursday accused Colombia of wanting to use his country as a way to send drugs to the world, after reporting the seizure, in three operations, of 890 kilograms of cocaine and the arrest of twelve people.

“They intend to use our territory as a transit for the shipment of that drug and obviously to affect, to damage, Venezuelan society,” said Saab in declarations to the public television VTV, after describing the operations as a “hard blow” to drug traffickers who, according to him, are supported by the Colombian State.

He insisted that Colombia is the “biggest producer” of cocaine in the world, since, he said, “80% of the drug” is produced in the “Colombian narco-state”.

Regarding the operations of the authorities, he detailed that one took place last March 22nd in Táchira, the state bordering Colombia, when officers of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) seized 400 packages of cocaine that were going to be transported to the state of Carabobo.

“The substance was hidden in the walls of a cargo vehicle, which was transporting cheese”, he indicated and added that there are seven people arrested, among them a teenager.

The prosecutor only identified three of the detainees, although without detailing their nationality: Luis Carlos Cardona Porto, Wilmer Sánchez Ramírez and Alcides Peñaranda Barrientos.

The other two procedures took place on March 22nd in the states of Falcón (northwest) and Mérida (southwest), where 190 and 191 packages of cocaine were seized, respectively.

The packages seized in Falcón were to be transported in a boat to a destination which the Prosecutor’s Office is still investigating, added the prosecutor while assuring that five other people were arrested and two arrest warrants were issued.

Source: Swissinfo