a colombia tourism company owner has been arrested for allegedly operating a drug trafficking ring that smuggled cocaine into the us on charter and commercial flights
Colombian authorities dismantled a drug trafficking ring which smuggled cocaine to the Unites States on charter and commercial flights, government officials said.
At least eight individuals were taken into custody during operations in Bogotá, Chocó, Meta and Valle del Cauca, the Attorney General’s Office of Colombia said Thursday.
The suspects were identified as Daniel López, a pilot; Freiman Arango, an air traffic control operator; and Jhon Novoa, a middle man between the ring and foreign drug traffickers.
Aviation technician José Burgos and Luz Acevedo, who allegedly bribed authorities, were also nabbed.
Authorities confiscated two airplanes and half a ton of cocaine.
Colombian authorities confiscated two jets that were being used by drug traffickers to smuggle cocaine to the United States as well as Central America. In all, agents arrested eight people, including company named Aero Colombia which sold travel packages
Aside from confiscating two jets, Colombian authorities seized half a ton of cocaine
The Attorney General’s Office said that Luis Heredia, who was apprehended, was the general manager of a company named Aero Colombia, which sold travel packages.
They were all charged with trafficking and the manufacturing or possession of drugs.
Acevedo was the only suspect who accepted charges.
The criminal group shipped the cocaine on jets that flew out of clandestine airstrips and Reyes Murillo Airport in NuquÃ, a Pacific coast city about 230 miles from Bogota.
A member of a drug trafficking ring was among eight individuals taken into custody, the Attorney General's Office of Colombia announced Thursday
A police officer approaches a member of a Colombia drug trafficking network that was dismantled this week. The group was formally accused Thursday of using commercial and charter flights to send massive loads of cocaine to the United States and Central America
The aircrafts were kept parked at Ernesto Cortissoz Airport in Barranquilla and specifically outfitted to keep the drug shipments concealed, officials said.
The planes were then dispatched down to Pacific coast town Chocó and the Caribbean coast town of Sucre, where they were loaded with massive shipments that were bound for the United States and Central America.