Colombia arrests over 200 suspected members of cartel accused of paying recruits $3,500 for

Colombian authorities mentioned Monday that they had captured greater than 200 members of the nation’s largest drug cartel, which is accused of murdering two dozen safety power members prior to now month.

The Gulf Clan was born out of the right-wing paramilitary teams that fought leftist guerrillas within the Nineteen Nineties earlier than turning their consideration to the cocaine commerce.

President Gustavo Petro has accused the group, with which he suspended peace talks in early 2023, of devising a technique to “systematically homicide” members of the safety forces.

Armed forces chief Franciso Cubides informed a information convention on Monday the safety forces had responded by arresting 217 members of the clan since April 15.

He added that 15 different suspected drug traffickers had been shot lifeless in raids that had netted 6.8 tons of medication, 123 firearms and greater than 15,000 rounds of ammunition.

Sixteen cops and 5 troopers have been killed in assaults blamed on what Petro has known as the Gulf Clan’s “pistol plan.”

Cubides mentioned the assaults had been a part of a “determined response” by armed teams to the “overwhelming” setbacks they had been struggling by the hands of the police and army within the north and west of the nation.

The cartel paid its members “between 10 and 15 million (Colombian pesos, between $2,300 and three,500) for some lifeless cops,” Inside Minister Armando Benedetti informed a weekly authorities cupboard assembly.

The Gulf Clan, which engages in unlawful gold mining, racketeering and migrant smuggling, is believed to quantity about 7,500 members, in keeping with authorities estimates. The group’s “main supply of earnings is from cocaine trafficking, which it makes use of to fund its paramilitary actions,” in keeping with the U.S. State Division.

Final month, the police and the DEA killed a person dubbed “Chirimoya,” one of many cartel’s 5 commanders, in addition to eight different members of the group.

The Gulf Clan is considered one of a number of cartels lately designated as international terrorist teams by the US. In 2022, the Gulf Clan shut down dozens of cities in northern Colombia for 4 days in response to its chief being extradited to the U.S. for trial.

The arrests come as Colombia suffers its worst outburst of violence for the reason that leftist FARC guerrilla military, one of many world’s oldest insurgent actions, signed a peace take care of the federal government in 2016.

Benedetti admitted final month that Petro’s technique of pursuing “whole peace” by partaking in dialogue with the nation’s numerous armed teams had not borne fruit.

On Petro’s watch, a number of armed teams, significantly the Gulf Clan, have grown stronger, Protection Minister Pedro Sanchez admitted lately in an AFP interview.