Cops in El Salvador can be seen setting fire to $67 million worth of cocaine in video footage released by the country's Attorney General’s Office.
The government said its military seized two boats transporting 2,699 kilos of cocaine about 1,000 miles off the Pacific coast south central department of La Paz last month.
The marines intercepted one vessel transporting 1.3 kilos of cocaine on May 19 and another with a shipment of 1.4 kilos on May 24.
The drugs were taken to a forest in the town of Ilopango, east of San Salvador, the capital, and set ablaze on Monday.
A Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson told DailyMail.com that each kilo could have fetched between $18,000 and $19,000 in the United States.
A dark cloud of smoke hovered over a forest near San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, on Monday after authorities set 2,699 kilos of cocaine on fire
El Salvador's marines participated in an operation that led to the seizure of 1.4 kilos of cocaine on May 24, approximately 1,012 miles off the Pacific coast south central department of La Paz
The drug traffickers were identified as Ecuadorean nationals Miguel López, 24 and Cristian Mero, 26; Oscar Torres, 44, and Johnson Rentería, 51, both of Colombia.
Mexican nationals Alejandro Trias, 28, Joel Armento, 54, and Eduardo Contreras, 32, were also taken into custody.
All seven men were placed in pre-trial detention as part of the investigation.
The Attorney General’s Office didn’t say where the drugs were being transported to and which drug trafficking organization it belonged to.
In the video, the kilos were covered in plastic and featured special labels, including Corona and Patek Philippe logos. It's tactic used by drug cartels to identify their product.
A Salvadoran law enforcement official inspects the cocaine packages before they were set on fire on Monday
Many of the cocaine packages featured Corona beer logos - a tactic used by drug traffickers to identify their product
The government of El Salvador set fire to 2,699 kilos of cocaine worth $67 million dollars on Monday. The drugs were seized off two shipments that were busted by the military in the Pacific Ocean on May 19 and 24
The massive cocaine shipment's burning comes after three men from Ecuador were busted sailing on a vessel with a shipment of cocaine worth $25 million on June 4 in the same region.
While the world’s cocaine supply comes out of Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, transnational drug trafficking organizations depend on maritime routes to ship their product.
Maritime drug busts accounted for 89 percent of the seizures in 2021, according to the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime.
El Salvador seized 3.18 tons of cocaine in 2023 in different operations.
