Authorities in the South American country of Guyana announced Sunday they had seized more than 8,000 pounds of cocaine found in a lush jungle near the border with Venezuela, officials said, just weeks after a “narcotics submarine” was discovered in the region.
The land seizure is believed to be the largest in recent history, with Security Minister Robeson Benn telling reporters he estimated the value of the drugs to be at least $200 million.
The drugs were discovered in earthen pits in Guyana’s northwest region, authorities said.
The traffickers discovered the cocaine near a clandestine airstrip for shipment to Europe, a customs official said. James Singh, head of the Guyana Customs Agency’s anti-drug unit, said the traffickers dug holes in the ground to hide the cocaine and then covered them with wooden planks.
Police arrested one suspect and said they were searching for two other people who fled the scene.
The Guyana Police and Army, as well as the US Drug Enforcement Administration, were involved in the operation.
“We are pleased to have the DEA with us to share information and intelligence,” Benn said. “Guyana is a victim of this illegal activity. We do not produce cocaine, we do not transit it.”
The drugs were seized in an area where police have found improvised submersible ships — dubbed “narco-submarines” — have been hidden in the jungle in recent months. Authorities said it was unclear whether any of the vessels had actually been used, but they would step up surveillance in the area.
INTERPOL
A few weeks ago, Interpol declared that a homemade weapon “narcotic submarine” A ship intercepted in the Guyana jungle was capable of carrying up to 3 tonnes of cocaine at a time, warning that traffickers in the region may be steering semi-submersibles through the rivers of South America before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and eventually arriving in Western Europe.
The semi-submersible vessel was seized with 615 tonnes of illegal drugs and 505 tonnes of precursor chemicals worth $1.6 billion, as well as 65 stolen cars, in 31 different countries, Interpol said.
Semi-submersibles, which cannot go completely underwater, are popular among international drug traffickers because they can often evade detection by authorities. The vessels are sometimes seized in Colombian waters heading towards the United States, Central America and Europe.
Earlier this summer, the Colombian navy said it seized two of the submarines off the country’s Pacific coast, which together contained nearly 5 tons of cocaine and were headed toward Central America. Colombian authorities said at the time that officers had intercepted 13 of the submarines so far in 2024, after intercepting 20 of the semi-submersibles in 2023.
AFP contributed to this report.
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