In eleven months of the year, security forces seized more than five thousand 628 kilograms of narcotics, including cocaine, crack, methamphetamine and marijuana, according to the General Subdirectorate for the Analysis of Anti-Narcotics Information of the National Civil Police (PNC).
He added that they eradicated more than 10.42 million marijuana plants, poppy plants and coca bushes, which the agency said weakened the infrastructure of criminal groups involved in the illegal production of substances.
In addition, they confiscated eight million 815,000 573.40 quetzales (just over a million dollars), 92,000 340 US currency, 200 euros and 24,000 835 Mexican pesos in cash, the PNC said.
The actions – he stressed – allowed the seizure of 228 vehicles, three aircraft, two boats and 164 firearms, as well as the arrest of 978 people linked to this sector, while 15 are in the process of being extradited to the United States.
He also pointed out the destruction of four drug laboratories and the deactivation of twelve airstrips used by international structures to import illegal drugs into the national territory.
Experts on the subject point out that drug trafficking networks in the country are currently managed by local actors who control certain areas with the complicity or participation of officials, police and military.
A drug-related incident shakes Guatemalan society this Monday after a video was circulated on social networks reporting the presence of an armed commando of about 20 vehicles in the department of Chiquimula.
The men arrived at a store in luxury vehicles with Mexican license plates, wearing masks to cover their faces, weapons on their hips and carrying rifles.
In this regard, the spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, Jorge Chinchilla, pointed out that “there is an investigation” and “it is being determined whether there is a situation.” The ministry said that it had immediately started taking the appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the people to ensure people around the location where the recording was supposedly taken.
The Ministry of Defense emphasized that the army was acting in support of the police in the context of population security. “The situation depicted in the video is the responsibility of the PNC,” he concluded.
npg/znc