Drug processing laboratory was found in the community of Carchi, border area with Colombia

Military intelligence work in the community of Tarabita, in the Tobar Donoso parish, in the northwestern area of ​​Carchi, made it possible to detect a drug crystallization facility, which was operated by Colombian irregular groups.

The discovery occurred yesterday, Saturday, January 28, during a reconnaissance and surveillance patrol carried out by the military on the Ecuadorian-Colombian border, in front of the department (province) of Nariño, in southern Colombia.

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With the support of agents from the Esmeraldas Joint Task Force, this laboratory was located, which was in the custody of the Urías Rondón Mobile Column, from Colombia, which operates outside the law in this sector of the common border, to which It is entered by river or walking for more than two days.

According to the information to which this newspaper had access, this illegal infrastructure (cristalizadero) had the capacity to produce at least half a ton of controlled substances. It is presumed that around 50 people worked there.

The crystallizaderos are rustic coca-growing complexes that house in the bowels of the jungle this type of improvised housing built with materials from the area to process cocaine.

The Ecuadorian uniformed men indicated that due to the clashes between FOS, a group allied to the Sinaloa cartel, with this group up in arms, which are disputing control, no people were captured at the site.

Tarabita is part of the ancestral territories of the Awá binational nationality, located on the border of Carchi and Esmeraldas.

It is located in a remote place that does not have roads, electricity, or communications, where the few families live in scattered places in the middle of the thick jungle.

To get there, you have to take long and strenuous walks from Chical and San Marcos, along dangerous trails and paths.

It transpired that the cabins, equipment they used, storage tanks, utensils, among others, were destroyed and incinerated.

The base was near the international San Juan River, which divides the two countries.

From Tarabita and other Carchense towns, you can see, ahead, on the banks of the Colombian side, coca crops that are under the surveillance of the FARC and dissident groups.

Colombian soldiers explained that residents, natives of the region and displaced from the provinces of Putumayo and Caquetá, support their families with the harvest of two or three hectares of coca.

This is the third laboratory discovered, demolished and burned in that sector by the Ecuadorian Army, the first this year. (YO)