Colombia made its largest cocaine bust in a decade, authorities announced Friday, with 14 tons confiscated at its main Pacific port amid tensions with Washington, which has branded Bogota's anti-drug policies insufficient. Authorities said a canine team helped uncover the massive quantity of hidden drugs.
The seizure in the world's largest cocaine-producing country comes as the White House has hit President Gustavo Petro with financial sanctions and removed Colombia from the list of allies in the war on drugs.
The cocaine, stored in dozens of 110-pound sacks inside a warehouse, was "camouflaged" in a mixture with plaster, the Defense Ministry posted on X, calling it a "historic blow against drug trafficking."
The ministry released video of a sniffer dog reacting to the sacks and images of officers using an electronic device to test the contents. Officials said the seizure prevented the circulation of 35 million doses of cocaine valued at over $388 million.
Authorities said a canine team helped uncover the massive quantity of hidden drugs.
Colombia Defense Ministry
It was "the largest seizure by the Colombian police in the last decade," said Petro, whose term ends in nine months.
The operation was carried out -- "without a single death," according to Petro -- in the southwestern port of Buenaventura, a strategic departure point for Colombian cocaine.
Petro is critical of Donald Trump's anti-drug strategy and has rejected as "extrajudicial executions" the bombings that the U.S. president has authorized against boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
In an exclusive conversation with CBS News in October, Petro claimed some of those killed by the U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats have been innocent civilians, and he reiterated his accusation that the attacks violate international law.
"Killing the business' workers is easy," Petro told CBS News. "But if you want to be effective, you have to capture the bosses of the business."
The White House has denied that innocent civilians were killed in the boat strikes.
The Drug Enforcement Administration says about 90% of the cocaine that reaches the U.S. comes from Colombia, and Mr. Trump has blamed Petro, saying he's failed to rein in drug cartels that operate in his country.
Colombia regularly breaks its own annual record for coca leaf cultivation and powder cocaine production.
It has some 625,000 acres under drug cultivation and produces at least 2,600 tons of cocaine, according to United Nations figures for 2023, the most recent available.
Petro considers Mr. Trump's sanctions unfair and claims that record seizures have been made under his government. Petro released a chart on social media late Friday, purporting to show a steady increase in cocaine seizures in the country over the last six years.
Earlier this week, Colombian navy divers at a port on the Pacific coast discovered over 450 pounds of cocaine underneath a ship that was preparing to set sail for Europe.
That seizure came just a few days after the navy announced it had confiscated more than seven tons of drugs from two speedboats and a semi-submersible vessel, or so-called "narco sub," also in the Pacific Ocean.
