Over 6 tons of cocaine bound for Turkey seized in Colombia since 2020

Over six tons of cocaine destined for Turkey have been seized in Colombia over the past 4.5 years, according to data from the South American country’s Antinarcotics Unit (DIRAN).

Thursday June 20 2024 02:59 pm

Duvar English

In May, more than half a tonne of cocaine was seized from Colombia en route to Turkey or in Turkish ports, data from the Colombian Anti-Narcotics Unit (DIRAN) revealed.

Since 2020, more than six tons of cocaine destined for Turkey have been seized in the South American country, according to reporting by Voice of America (VOA) Turkish.

Turkish police seized 373 kilos of cocaine loaded from Colombia at the Gemlik Port in the last weeks while Colombian narcotics teams detected 151.2 kilos of cocaine intended to be sent to Istanbul at the Cartagena Port before it set sail last month.

The Colombian Police particularly highlighted the seizure of over 4.9 tonnes of cocaine in a single operation at the Port of Buenaventura in 2020 destined for Turkey.

Experts note that a shipment of this size was probably sent to more than one criminal organization and that Turkey's importance in cocaine shipments to Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East has increased in recent years.

The data DIRAN sent to VOA Turkish also revealed that the arrests and detentions occurred only in small-scale drug shipments in 41 different incidents in the last 4.5 years.

In these incidents, the 16 people caught were only those smuggling quantities of less than 20 kilos at airports, and there was not a single arrest for attempted shipments of larger quantities.