Guatemalan anti-narcotics authorities seized at least 605 kilos of cocaine, distributed in 630 packages, which were transported in junk containers from Costa Rica, authorities reported Monday.
The seizure took place last Sunday in a container in Puerto Quetzal, located on the Guatemalan Pacific coast, a source from the Ministry of the Interior (Interior) told EFE today.
The Minister of the Interior, Francisco Jiménez, explained that the cocaine was hidden in a metal cylinder inside the scrap that had transported the container from Costa Rica.
According to the authorities, this stash of 605 kilos of cocaine was already transferred to the police cellars in the Guatemalan capital for custody and subsequent destruction.
The authorities, including anti-narcotics prosecutors of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, are still pending the registration of two other containers with scrap, also from Costa Rica.
Jiménez, who was appointed by the new president, Bernardo Arévalo de León, said that the confiscation of this drug represents a coup to the drug trafficking organizations operating in the region.
This seizure is in addition to another 525 packages that were also confiscated last Friday in the same port of the department (province) of Escuintla in another container.
Due to its geographical position, Guatemalan territory is used as a bridge by drug networks to traffic drugs from South America to the United States, which is one of the main consumers.
During this year, the authorities have already arrested three drug traffickers who have been requested for extradition by the U.S. justice system.
This article has been translated from the original which first appeared in El Mundo