Colombia arrests 52 linked to global drug traffick

Fri, Mar 31, 2023 page7
Colombia arrests 52 linked to global drug trafficking
IMPOUNDED: After a two-year investigation, the operation seized US$134 million of cocaine and disrupted international drug cartels
AFP, BOGOTA

Colombian authorities have arrested 52 people linked to international drug trafficking in a major operation supported by the US, France and Spain, the Colombian Ministry of National Defense said on Wednesday.

Of those arrested, 34 were under “current extradition orders,” Colombian Minister of National Defense Ivan Velasquez said.

After two years of investigation, Colombian authorities uncovered the suspects during an operation which lasted two months, and resulted in the seizure of “4 tonnes of cocaine worth US$134 million,” he said.


A counternarcotics police officer runs through a coca field during a cocaine raid in La Hormiga, Colombia, on April 9 last year.
Photo: AP

The suspects “were linked to international Mexican organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation, Los Zetas as well as European organizations such as Clan Devesa,” the ministry said in a statement.

Those arrested included Mexicans Carlos Omar Felix and Silvano Francisco Mariano from the Sinaloa cartel, accused of trafficking fentanyl to the US.

A Slovak citizen, Michal Pis, who is accused of marketing methamphetamines in his country, the Czech Republic and Germany, was also among those detained, along with a British man who coordinated shipping drugs to Belgium and a Chilean money launderer.

Despite 40 years of fighting against drugs, Colombia remains the world’s leading producer of cocaine, with the US its main market.

I was expecting this t be about the usual cartel stuff. I'm glad I clicked on to read this. Slovak countries working with South American cartels and Mexicans is big. Belgium and a Chilean money launderers, truly global.

I have questions about this part:
The suspects “were linked to international Mexican organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation, Los Zetas as well as European organizations such as Clan Devesa,” the ministry said in a statement.

Is this blown out of proportion, and who are the Clan Devesa?

Especially in Bogota there are representatives of the bigger Mexican cartels like Sinaloa, CJNG, Zetas around where they conduct business with Colombian organized crime groups - usually representatives of the Urabeños group that are active in Bogota as well.

Miguel Devesa is a former police officer from the Spanish region of Galicia. Traditionally in Galicia there are small, often family-based groups active who act as "brokers" between bigger Colombian and European (often from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Turkey and the Balkans) criminal organizations. A European organized crime group connects with a Colombian group to procure a large shipment of cocaine. And when they use the Spanish route, both groups often acquire the services of a Galician smuggling group to get the shipment safely from point A to point B. Clan Devesa is such a group. A noteworthy element is that Miguel Devesa for a long time operated from Mali and controlled a few smuggling routes through West Africa. Many Galician smuggling groups aren't really all that active anymore - they were never exceptionally large and (compared to other criminal organizations) not exceptionally violent groups - and in recent years Colombians themselves controlled quite a few routes to Spain. The Devesa clan on the other hand was still an active example of the traditional Galician smugglers.

Stanley Axel Peterson Granucci, a North American and Panamanian national, had the real estate and investment sector as a front and sent more than two tons of cocaine a week to the United States and Europe.
He was in charge of coordinating from the city of Medellín for the shipment of narcotics by sea.
He camouflaged his illegal activity in the real estate and automotive sectors, as well as in investment and trading analyst, carrying out large transactions through platforms, which allowed him to launder a large part of his fortune, extending his economic empire to Central American countries and the United States.