The Armed Forces of the Antilles (FAA) have made a “record seizure” of 3.5 tons of cocaine from a Venezuelan fishing vessel traveling southeast of the island of Barbados, they announced in a statement on Friday, December 1.
The patrol boat La Combattante intercepted that ship on Nov. 28 and handed over the crew members and cargo to Venezuelan authorities, the FAA said. According to the same source, the drugs were distributed in 119 bundles.
The interception came “thanks to initial Colombian intelligence on suspicion of a ship involved in drug trafficking,” the head of the FAA operations department told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The operation took place at night, after an initial phase of aerial reconnaissance and localization.
“Given the position where it was seized, it was drugs heading to Europe, possibly with transshipment to a ship capable of crossing the Atlantic,” the same source stressed. Barbados in the Southern Antilles is the easternmost island in the region.
The operation, carried out by the National Navy with the support of Customs and the State Department, was carried out in coordination with American allies and Colombian partners of the FAA, the latter said. This seventh FAA seizure this year results in “more than 10 tons of narcotics being removed from distribution networks” in 2023, the release said.