While Colombia is under drastic containment, the executive does not relax the pressure on the drug cartels. The army continues its operations against the mafias having control over the production of cocaine. The Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it had killed five suspected members of the Clan del Golfo, Colombia's main drug trafficking gang, during a bombardment in the north-west of the country.
Some 1,600 men make up the clan
The military operation was carried out by air force and police in a rural area of Acandi commune. Members of the armed group were organizing a drug shipment to Central America by land via the dangerous Darien jungle, which separates Colombia from Panama, or by fast boats, according to the same source. Coming from far-right paramilitary militias demobilized in 2006, the Clan del Golfo is said to have some 1,600 armed men. He is the target of a strong law enforcement offensive, according to a report released last year by the ministry.
Colombia is the world's main producer of coca leaf, a raw material for cocaine, with 154,000 hectares of plantations in 2019 according to the UN. It also remains the first producer of this drug, of which the United States is the first consumer, despite four decades of fight against drug trafficking.
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