
Colombia's military seizedsixtonnesofcocainefromajunglelaboratory run byELNguerillas in the southwest of the country, Defence Minister Diego Molano said onTuesday.
"I want to announce to the country the most important blow to theELNdrug trafficking this year, with the seizure ofsixtonsofcocainehydrochloride," he said in a video released to the media.
Operation Jared, in which three "large laboratories" were destroyed by the armedforcesand law enforcement agencies, was carried out in the municipality of Samaniego, in the department of Narino, near the border with Ecuador.
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"Thecocaine, equipment and other elements found would have been worth more than $9 million. The narcotic was ready to be packed and transported to theColombianPacific coast (...) to be sent to Mexico and the United States" said attorney general Francisco Barbosa.
Molano announced this week that he would redouble efforts against "terrorism" by armed groups after an attack on President Ivan Duque's helicopter Friday in Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela.
The government blamed theELNfor the attack, as well as for a car bomb that exploded at a military facility in the same city 10 days earlier.
TheELNis the largest holdoutrebelgroup in the country, having carried on fighting when the main guerrilla faction, the Revolutionary ArmedForcesof Colombia, or FARC, signed a peace deal with the government to end half a century of conflict.