BOGOTA, Columbia – Authorities confiscated 8.8 tons of cocaine, worth an estimated $240 million, in a Colombian town near the border of Panama.
Columbia’s national police said the drugs were found inside an underground hole located on a banana farm in the Caribbean town of Turbo, about 300 miles from the capital, Bogota.
The Columbian president said on Twitter that the seizure was the largest in the nation’s history and a “major blow to criminals."
.@PoliciaAntiNar y #BloquedeBúsqueda @PoliciaColombia incautaron 8 toneladas de cocaína del #ClanÚsuga en #Antioquia pic.twitter.com/kiS32BwdB1
— Mindefensa Colombia (@mindefensa) May 15, 2016
Police said the 359 bags of cocaine belonged to Columbia’s largest cocaine-trafficking organization, the “Usuga Clan.”
Three people were arrested during the police operation, NBC News reports.
Authorities say the drugs were ready to be sent to the U.S. through Central America.