Intelligence Work: Zulia National Guard busts important drug gang; seizes 600 kilos cocaine

<a href=www.vheadline.com>venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2003 By: David Coleman

Venezuelan National Guard (GN) anti-narcotics agents estimate some 150 metric tonnes of Colombian produced cocaine pass through Venezuelan transshipment points each year ... 25% of the neighboring nation's total production and considered to be the largest world producer of illegal drug.

The news comes as 6th Control judge Hector Medina ordered the incarceration of four narco traffickers caught with 460 packages of cocaine powder totaling 600 kilos (1,323 pounds).  The detained suspects are named as Eduardo Junior Silva Barreto (33) alleged to be the ringleader, Jhonathan Alexander Gonzalez Perez (21), Georsi Barreto Betancourt (26) and Miriam del Carmen Santeliz Gonzalez.

23rd State Attorney Alis Boscan de Baptista says investigators now have 30 days in which to bring charges against the four and says he expects more arrests to be made shortly as interrogation proceeds.  Zulia Regional Criminal Investigations Department (DIP) officials are said to be hunting two other suspects linked to the drugs gang busted in the Los Pinos neighborhood of Maracaibo in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Citizen Security & Defense official Jose Sanchez says he has informed the Official Ombudsman's Office on all arrest procedures, including a newly-issued capture warrant for the missing duo, who remain unnamed.

DIP officials say the capture and seizure of the gang and the drugs haul has struck a severe blow to a powerful drugs cartel operating across the border from Colombia.  The drugs cache had been concealed in an underground cavity in waterproof packaging indicating that it was due to be shipped out by sea, most probably to Europe and North America.

GN raid commander Colonel Alcides Manuel Garcia Mavarez says the operation was the result of weeks of intelligence work.  The raid was approved just before midnight on Monday and the suspects' dwelling surrounded by armed officers in a well-orchestrated policing operation.  While police documents estimate the value of the cocaine at more than a billion Venezuelan bolivares, its value at street level in Europe is likely to be many multiples more.

Meanwhile a Venezuelan drug mule hospitalized in Cancun (Mexico) after she swallowed 44 capsules containing 536 grams of heroin, has been named as Miriam Gonzalez de Gonzalez (39) ... she is in ICU and her condition is described as extremely grave.