BOLIVIA: Bolivia‘s anti-narcotics police have burned 412 kilos of high-grade cocaine a criminal organization intended to transport to Mexico and possibly to the United States, authorities said here the other day.
The cocaine, which was seized in November, was packaged in 3,522 boxes of salt lamps. It was the largest amount of drugs seized in 2014.
Deputy Minister of Social Defence, Felipe Caceres, said here the other day that the drugs would have fetched an estimated 17 million US dollars in Mexico. The drugs were seized during an operation called “Tonala”, the name of the Mexican town they were destined to be delivered, according to local media reports. It was being transported in a trailer truck which had departed from the Cochabamba region, some 350 kilometers (217.5 miles) east of La Paz.
Caceres said the seizure sent a strong message to the US and to the international community that fighting drug smugglers must be done in a “context of shared responsibility.” Bolivian authorities displayed a poster with images of the seized drugs, a map, two men arrested, as well as third suspect who they said was the emissary in Bolivia for a criminal organization in Mexico. The Mexican national remained at large.
