Colombia, Mexico seize cocaine disguised as printer, copier chemical

MEXICO City, September 8 (Reuters) — Police in Colombia and Mexico have seized more than two tonnes of cocaine after a sniffer dog discovered part of the consignment which had been dyed black and registered as an ingredient in print cartridges, Colombian police said on Monday (September 7).

The shipment, part of which was found in the cargo terminal of Bogota’s international airport, was destined for the Mexican state of Sinaloa, home to the infamous drug cartel, Colombia’s anti-narcotics unit said in a statement.

Police seized 48 boxes of black powder registered as a chemical component for printer cartridges and photocopier toner.

Lab tests later confirmed the haul in Bogota contained 1.07 tonnes of cocaine.

The Colombian police then alerted Mexican authorities to a similar air shipment which had left Bogota hours before.

“The seizure of a little more than 1000 kg (1 tonne) of this substance (black cocaine) was achieved and in Mexico they seized 961 kg to be exact, and so this makes a total of 2 tonnes of cocaine hydro-chloride that has been confiscated,” said Colombian police chief, General Rodolfo Palomino, during a news conference in Bogota.

The drug was likely sent by a narcotics ring on Colombia’s Atlantic coast, the police said.

Colombian authorities have seized 115 tonnes of cocaine in 2015. Some 300 tonnes are produced per year in the Andean country, long a hub for drug production and trafficking.

General Palomino explained how cocaine is sometimes mixed with other substances as way of disguising its appearance for smuggling purposes.

“It’s not that there is such a thing as black cocaine per se, what we have found here is a way of hiding this substance (cocaine), there is a kind of zinc mixed in here and it is true that part of this product is used for printer toner, it has been mixed with cocaine hydro chloride and in this way, they have tried to disguise the drug shipment,” he said.

Police at Mexico City’s international airport guarded the 961 kilograms of dyed cocaine destined for the state of Sinaloa that was seized from the plane that arrived from Bogota’s El Dorado airport.