Venezuela seizes more than three tonnes of cocaine

Caracas, April 5:

's ONA counter narcotics agency said on Friday that it seized 3,175 kgs of

last week in the western state of Zulia, bordering Colombia.

"Good intelligence work led to the detection of this camp with its five laboratories for processing cocaine and storing coca paste," ONA Director Alejandro Keleris said in a press conference.

Besides cocaine, security forces found 3,900 litres of chemicals used in processing coca paste into cocaine.

Fifty army troops also took part in Operation Sovereignty I 2014, which discovered this lab just a few metres from the Colombian border.

During 2013, Venezuela confiscated 46.8 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine and marijuana, and located 108 clandestine airstrips used by drug smugglers.

Though not a drug-producing nation, Venezuela is a conduit for cocaine from neighbouring Colombia.

IANS/EFE