Venezuela, Panama seize cocaine shipments

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It was a good weekend for counter-narcotics officials in Venezuela and Panama.

The Venezuelans seized 2.5 tons of cocaine Saturday on Margarita Island, 200 miles east of Caracas, as it was being loaded onto a DC-8 bound for Sierra Leone.

West Africa has become a lively hub for Colombian cocaine bound for Europe, where one-third of the powder is now thought to be consumed.

Venezuela has been criticized for lax anti-drug enforcement, as shipments of cocaine and heroin have skyrocketed since Venezuela and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency stopped cooperating in August 2005.

Among the nine arrested were 4 Venezuelan police officials who were caught helping load the drugs onto the aircraft. One Sierra Leone national and one U.S. citizen were also detained.

Meanwhile the Panamanians seized 1.6 tons of coke in two weekend operations. Most of it was found under the false bottom of a boat stopped off the Pacific island of Coiba, where in March the U.S. Coast Guard helped Panamanian police make one of the biggest maritime busts in history, seizing 20 tons of cocaine on its way to the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Four Colombians were arrested in last weekend’s two Panamanian raids.

Posted by Chris Kraul in Bogota