Over 215 Clan del Golfo drug traffickers captured in Colombia

Colombian authorities confirmed on Tuesday the arrest of more than 215 members of the country’s largest drug trafficking gang: the Clan del Golfo. The gang members are responsible for a “pistol plan” that has resulted in the deaths of around 20 law enforcement officers.

Days ago the socialist president Gustavo Petro denounced that the powerful cartel is enforcing a strategy of "systematic assassination" against members of the security forces. This is taking place amid the worst surge of armed violence in Colombia in the past decade.

Admiral Francisco Cubides, commander of the Armed Forces, stated at a press conference that “217 individuals from this organized armed group” have been captured since April 15, as part of a “coordinated” response by authorities to the recent attacks.

Another 15 drug traffickers were killed in security operations and 6.8 tons of drugs, 123 firearms and more than 15,000 rounds of ammunition were seized, the military said.

Dozens of police and military killed

The Gulf Clan's paramilitary-inspired rampage has also left 16 police and seven military personnel dead since then, according to the Defense Ministry.

"They have instituted paying between ten and fifteen million (between $2,300 and $3,500) for killing some police officers," added Armando Benedetti, interior minister, during the government's weekly cabinet council.

Violence related to these actions has increased in the departments of Bolivar, Antioquia, Cordoba, Choco and Magdalena, in northern and western Colombia.

Pablo Escobar's methods return to Colombia

The "Plan Pistola" resembles the methods used by cocaine narcotics trafficker Pablo Escobar in the 1990s, when they paid high sums for each uniformed man killed, as part of their open war against the state.

Considered the country's largest cartel and the world's biggest cocaine producer, the Gulf Clan calls itself the Gaitanista Army of Colombia and has more than 7,500 members.

This is not the first time this group has imposed a "Plan Pistola"; in 2022 it did so in response to the extradition to the US of Dairo Antonio Usuga David, alias Otoniel, the former leader of the criminal group.