This article was originally published on Cannabis.net and appears here with permission.
The confiscation of cannabis shipments on Venezuela's coastline and border with Colombia highlights the nation's significance as a crucial conduit for a specific strain of Colombian cannabis flooding the markets of Latin America.
Colombian National Police confiscated 2.5 tons of cannabis at the beginning of March, hidden in a truck loaded with plastic furniture and kitchen utensils. The seizure occurred in the municipality of Maicao, located in the border department of La Guajira, on the boundary between Colombia and Venezuela. According to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate (DIRAN) of the Colombian National Police, the seized consignment was planned for Venezuela and various nations in Central America.
In the following days, Venezuelan officials declared the discovery of 457 kilograms of cannabis left unattended on the Caribbean Sea's coast in Falcón State. These confiscations came after earlier seizures that occurred towards the end of 2022 in Venezuela, with one of the seizures on December 15th weighing over 3.4 tons. Officials claimed that this was the largest marijuana seizure in the country over the past ten years.
Between September and December 2022, various operations conducted along Venezuela's northern coast resulted in confiscating roughly 7.6 tons of marijuana, with this most recent seizure included. InSight Crime's media monitoring and a report by Venezuela's National Anti-drugs Superintendence (SUNAD) indicate that around 10 tons of marijuana were seized in Venezuela throughout 2022.
Independent reports and official sources suggest that since there is no significant cultivation of cannabis on a large scale in Venezuela, most of the drugs seized and flowing through the country originate from the northern mountains of Colombia's western Cauca department.
Deep Crime Analysis
The regional market's demand for Colombian-produced marijuana, particularly the high-THC strain known as "creepy," is fueling the significant seizures in Venezuela. The nation is a convenient transit point between Colombia and numerous other regional …