Elaborate sting targets notorious Colombian cartel as Italian police seize 4.3 tons of cocaine in one of Europe’s largest drug busts ever

Italian brokers on Tuesday confiscated 4.3 tons of cocaine with a avenue worth of practically a quarter-billion euros ({dollars}) in the northeastern port metropolis of Trieste, dealing a blow to Colombia’s feared Gulf Clan drug cartel in one of the largest drug busts ever in Europe.

Arrest warrants had been being executed for 38 individuals on suspicion of worldwide drug trafficking in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Colombia. The seizure was carried out by Italian monetary police and coordinated by anti-mafia investigators, following a yearlong investigation that additionally concerned U.S. Homeland Security.

The undercover operation dealt “another strong blow to one of the most important groups of Colombian narcos,” anti-mafia investigators mentioned in an announcement.

Last month, the Gulf Clan’s alleged boss was extradited from Colombia to the United States. Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, higher identified by the alias Otoniel, faces U.S. indictments in three federal courts. The Gulf Clan drug cartel shut down dozens of cities in northern Colombia for 4 days in response to the extradition.

Colombian President Iván Duque on the time of the extradition in contrast Otoniel to Pablo Escobar, the late former head of the Medellin drug cartel, calling him “the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world.” The former rural warlord had stayed on the run for greater than a decade by corrupting state officers and aligning himself with combatants on the left and proper.

He had been seized at his hideout in an operation involving tons of of troopers. The U.S. had positioned a $5 million bounty on his head.

Authorities in Italy estimate that legal teams paid 96 million euros ($102 million) for the cocaine, which might have been price 240 million euros on the Italian market. Undercover brokers infiltrated the drug smuggling chain, which operated in the northern areas of Veneto and Lombardy, the Lazio area together with Rome and the southern area of Calabria on the tip of Italy’s boot.

During the investigation, undercover brokers had been concerned in 19 “controlled deliveries,” which led to the identification of key traffickers each on the middleman and worldwide ranges.

Along with the drug, brokers additionally seized 1.8 million euros in money as nicely as autos allegedly used for trafficking, together with a big-rig truck.

According to the U.S. State Department, the Gulf Clan “uses violence and intimidation to control the narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points, and clandestine landing strips.”

“The organization operates in 13 of Colombia’s 32 departments, most of which are in the northwestern part of the country,” the State Department mentioned. “During a turf war with a rival criminal organization for drug trafficking routes, homicides shot up 443% over two years.”