Padrino López said that «more than 100 tons of drugs have been seized since 2022 on a border with Colombia»

The head of Defense of Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino López, said Monday that «more than 100 tons» of drugs have been seized since 2022 on the border with Colombia, as a result of the ‘Catatumbo lightning operation’, which was reactivated at the end of January after the conflict in the area of the Catatumbo, located on the border between the two countries.

EFE

In the weekly program of Nicolás Maduro «with Maduro +», the official indicated that Between 2022 and what goes from 2025 this amount of drugs has been seized, without detailing the figure or the type of narcotics.

Padrino López assured That Colombia’s «armed groups» go to Venezuelan territory, but said that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) has been present to «defend» sovereignty.

He also said that More than 27 camps «bedrooms, training» have been destroyedof construction of submarines, weapons and drugs, where «chemical precursors» were found to make narcotics.

On January 31, Maduro announced the deployment of the military operation ‘Catatumbo lightning’ in two border regions with Colombia to, he said, to do a complete cleaning of any «drug trafficking element.»

For his part, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, confirmed on February 4 a military operation with the collaboration of the Venezuelan Fanb to fight the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) on the border with Venezuela, in the middle of The crisis that the Catatumbo region is experiencing for guerrilla violence.

Since January 16, clashes between the ELN and Front 33 of the FARC dissidents in the Catatumbo have left 56 dead, according to the Ministry of Defense on Saturday, while the number of displaced rose to 54,098 people.