Naval forces of the Nicaraguan army seized 1 1/2 tons of cocaine and killed four drug traffickers, two of them Colombians, during an operation in the country’s northern Caribbean region, military officials said Saturday.
A spokesman for the Nicaraguan army, Juan Ramon Morales, told Efe that the troops carried out the operation Friday at 45.3 kilometers (28 miles) from Bilwi in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, or RAAN.
He said that troops of the naval force pursued and killed four drug traffickers including two unidentified Colombians and the Nicaraguans Kyrf Fernandez Evans and Johnny Chow Kingsman, who were identified by their wives.
Also impounded in the anti-drug operation besides the 1 1/2 tons of cocaine, Morales said, were a speedboat, 8 barrels of fuel, 2 AK-47 assault rifles with ammunition clips and the magazine for an Uzi submachine gun.
The military spokesman said that the cocaine would be burned on Saturday.
According to the naval force, up to last October almost 3 1/2 tons of drugs had been confiscated, most of it cocaine, and 43 people linked to the illegal drug trade had been arrested.
Nicaragua is geographically square in middle of the “traffic zone” for drugs produced in South America and then transported to North America where the trade is mostly handled by Mexican cartels and where the vast market of U.S. consumers is located, according to military and police forces.
