Bolivia seizes $450 mn of cocaine in secondbiggest drug seizure
Bolivian police have carried out the secondlargest drug bust in the country’s history, seizing more than 7.2 tonnes of cocaine destined for Belgium with a street value of nearly half a billion U.S. dollars, the Interior Minister said.
The operation was carried out in Bolivia’s highland region of Pisiga, on the border with Chile. The drugs were hidden in two
It was hidden in two trucks transporting scrap iron for export to Europe through Chilean ports
trucks transporting scrap iron for export to Europe through Chilean ports on the Pacific.
Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo reported that the seller of the drugs had fled the country to the United States, which he blamed on information being leaked from the prosecutor’s office to the media.
In January, Bolivian police carried out the country’s biggest antidrug operation by seizing more than 8 tonnes of cocaine.
Bolivia is one of the world’s top producers of coca, the raw ingredient used to make cocaine. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has noted a significant rise in shipments of the drug from the “Southern Cone” of South America, often to Europe.
Russia has replaced the head of its Navy, state media confirmed on Tuesday, after reports the previous naval chief had been sacked for repeatedly losing Black Sea warships to Ukrainian attacks.
The former commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet Alexander Moiseyev has been appointed acting commanderinchief, replacing outgoing Admiral
Nikolai Yevmenov, who had been in post since May 2019, the RIA news agency reported.
“Moiseyev was introduced as the Russian Navy’s acting commanderinchief at a ceremony,” the agency said.
The Kremlin last week refused to comment on Mr. Moiseyev’s appointment, which marks the biggest shakeup in Russia’s military top brass in months. Ukrainian forces claim have destroyed more to than two dozen Russian ships since the conflict began in February 2022, including a military patrol boat earlier this month.
The sinkings have been an embarrassment for Moscow, which has been forced to move boats from its historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to the port of Novorossiysk, further east.
Russia’s Black Sea woes come in stark contrast to its land offensive in east Ukraine, where its forces have advanced in recent months after over a year of deadlocked fighting.