The Venezuelan Armed Forces reported on Sunday the interception of a small plane allegedly involved in drug trafficking that entered its airspace without authorization. Its occupants, a Colombian and a Venezuelan, were detained.
“The aircraft in question is a fixed-wing Cessna 210 with registration XB-NQJ covered to avoid radar detection. It had no flight plan and no authorization from the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics,” explained Domingo Hernández Lárez, head of the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (CEOFANB), via Instagram.
After being detected by the military, the suspects made an emergency landing in the indigenous community of Kamarata, in the Venezuelan department of Bolívar.
Andrés Guillermo Carvajal Díaz, a Colombian national, and Jesús Alberto Espinoza Arrizaga, a Venezuelan national, were arrested in the operation.
Hernández explained that the small plane had a modified copilot’s door and higher-capacity fuel tanks, leading authorities to presume it was a vehicle prepared for drug trafficking. Inside the aircraft, authorities found three GPS devices, a satellite phone, 18,590,000 Colombian pesos (approximately €4,230), four mobile phones, and a VHF radio operating on a very high frequency band.
“The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) have reached a significant milestone in their fight against drug trafficking, immobilizing a total of 401 aircraft identified as targets of interest in drug trafficking operations,” Hernández stated. So far this year, 26 aircraft have been destroyed, bringing the total to 417 since 2012.
Furthermore, Hernández highlighted the anti-drug trafficking policy, seemingly in response to accusations of complicity leveled by U.S. authorities. “Venezuela is a territory of peace, where transnational drug trafficking is combated head-on and daily. Drug products are not produced, processed, or consumed here. We are not, and will not be, a platform for the scourge of drug trafficking,” he emphasized.
