Colombia is arrested by more than 200 members suspected of a Cartel accused of paying $ 3500 recruits for “dead police officers”

The Colombian authorities said on Monday that they had seized more than 200 members of the country’s largest drug cattle, which were accused of killing twenty members of the security force last month.

the Gulf clan He was born from the right -wing paramilitary groups that fought the leftist guerrilla war in the 1990s before turning their attention to the cocaine trade.

President Gustavo Petro accused the group, which was suspended with peace talks in early 2023, of creating a “killing” of members of the security forces systematically.

The head of the armed forces, Franciso Kobids, told a press conference on Monday that the security forces responded by the arrest of 217 members in the clan since April 15.

He added that 15 of the drug suspected traders were killed in a raid that recorded 6.8 tons of drugs, 123 firearms and more than 15,000 rounds of ammunition.

Sixteen police officers and five soldiers were killed in the blame attacks for what Petro called the “pistol plan” for the Gulf clan.

Copids said that the attacks were part of a “desperate response” by armed groups to the “overwhelming” setbacks they were suffering from the police and army in the north and west of the country.

“The cartel paid its members” between 10 and 15 million (the Colombian Bizo, between 2300 and 3500 dollars) for some of the dead police officers. “

It is believed that the Gulf clan, which is involved in illegal gold mining, migrant smuggling, is believed to be about 7,500 members, according to government estimates. “The main source of income for the group of cocaine trafficking, which it uses to finance its paramilitary activities,” according to what it said. US State Department.

Last month, the police and Dea killed a man called “Chirimoya”, ” One of the five Cartel leadersAs well as eight other members in the group.

The Gulf clan is one of several gangs recently specific As foreign terrorist groups by the United States. In 2022, the Gulf clan closed dozens of cities in northern Colombia for four days in response to its leader He was handed over to the United States to trial.

The arrests come at a time when Colombia has suffered from the worst violence since the Fark Vark Army, one of the oldest rebel movements in the world, has signed a peace agreement with the government in 2016.

Bendi admitted last month that the Petro strategy of following up “complete peace” by engaging in dialogue with various armed groups in the country did not bear fruit.

On Petro’s Watch, many armed groups, especially the Gulf clan, have grown stronger, and Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez recently admitted in an interview with Agence France -Presse.