Colombian drugrunners use drones for delivery

By Christopher Woody

BOGOTA: Drug traffickers in northern Colombia have turned to drone aircraft to move illicit cargoes across borders, say Colombian police.
Police in the coastal town of Bahia Solano, in the department of Choco on Colombia's northwest coast, uncovered 286.6 pounds of cocaine buried at a beach.

Along with it, they found parts of an aircraft that were ready for assembly, according to Jose Acevedo, the regional police commander.

“The drone was used to carry cocaine to Panama, it had capacity to transport 10 kg [22 pounds] on each trip and to travel a distance of 100 km,“ Acevedo said, adding the drugs were hidden and awaiting transport to Panama, where another group of criminals would retrieve them.

Acevedo also attributed the drugs to the Clan del Golfo, a Colombian criminal group also known as Clan Usaga and Los Urabenos.

The group emerged in Colombia over the past decade, moving into areas of the drug trade vacated by Colombian cartels and paramilitary groups, and becoming a kind of decentralised network of nodes running criminal activities throughout the country.

It has grown in power in recent years, and is believed to be the only Colombian criminal organisation to truly have a national reach. ­