Statements by the Venezuelan Minister of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, on the security operation “”Lightning of Catatumbo''. teleSUR
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00:00On how we have been developing, the scheme of corruption, terrorism, drug trafficking
00:14and conspiracy, it's all linked.
00:20All these vices came together in Zulia State, and in the last weeks we've hit decisive blows
00:33against drug trafficking organizations in the state of Zulia.
00:37We must remember where we come from and how it all began, how this investigation began.
00:45We've said it over and over, and we will continue to repeat it.
00:50All this is linked to the far-right sectors of the opposition.
00:56When New York Times comes out with this information, that's when people will believe it, but hopefully
01:03there's going to be records that we have been saying this for a while now.
01:08When New York Times or one of these famous newspapers that create narratives come out
01:13and say the same that we are saying, that's when you're going to start saying, oh, it's
01:19true.
01:20What we have been said here has been strictly proven, and the links to Maria, Maria Corina
01:27Machado, Simonovis, Urrutia, and all these people that are here, fully identified, and
01:36they think they are not identified.
01:39They're linked with whom?
01:41Well, with a great mafia in the state of Zulia that is being discovered after conspiracy
01:48meetings in Colombia by Maria Corina Machado with this man, Jose Enrique Rincon, who calls
01:58himself a businessman in Zulia in the shrimp business.
02:04We have the information.
02:05We began to work, and then we see that there are links with sectors of the judicial power,
02:11prosecutors, public ministries, police forces, including some military personnel.
02:18We began to review names and records, and we come with conclusions.
02:25This gentleman, Jose Enrique Rincon, that had an extensive network of shrimp farms by
02:36Maracaibo Lake, he used this business, these companies, for another end that we have been
02:48denouncing.
02:50When we go over the meeting between this man and Ms. Corina Machado, comes the location
02:57of mercenary camps, and we said this, and like always, we have been saying this for
03:05a very long time now.
03:06We're in Catatumbo, in the Catatumbo region, both in Venezuela and Colombia, exactly the
03:12same as Operation Gedeon.
03:15Well, on one of our lines of investigation, we learn about the mayor of Maracaibo, Rafael
03:24Ramirez, for corruption, and it's all linked to this whole operation through this man,
03:33Jose Enrique Rincon, and also comes linked in the conspiracy plots.
03:39This is the first phase.
03:42Then we detain this gentleman here, Kelvin de Jesus, the mayor of Colon municipality.
03:51That's where the plot of the camps come from, and bringing in weapons of war in Venezuelan
03:58territory, all linked to Jose Enrique Rincon.
04:04Then we began to see how much was being paid in taxes and how the operations went, and
04:09it turns out that the shrimp companies was just the front for a great business of money
04:14laundering.
04:15From where?
04:16From drug trafficking.
04:18And that's when we began a silence operation in detail.
04:26We can put up the Venezuelan map, this map here, a quiet operation, because they were
04:34using this route to bring the drug produced in Colombia.
04:42Remember?
04:43They themselves admitted that there were 50,000 hectares of coca plants in Colombia, 50,000
04:50hectares.
04:51A high-level official of the military said this in this area here.
04:59This area is very difficult to bring things out, so they thought a quicker way, safer
05:06way.
05:08And that's when they began to look for the territory control for the purpose so that
05:14all across the Maracaibo Lake could have supply locations of fuel and food for the shipments
05:26of drugs.
05:33So all these people here, they are in blue, they have been detained.
05:38Those that are in green, we are looking for them, and the ones that are in blue have been
05:41detained with clear confession, like for this person, for example, that was contacted to
05:48be an intermediary to bring the mercenaries to a location.
05:52And who was the contact, this man?
05:58And that's what led us to continue on this trajectory of the route.
06:03And I will tell you how, because thanks to these detentions and this seizure of drugs
06:07and ships, we found in GPS the route that they had programmed.
06:17So they were also detained, besides, here we have five new mayors that have been detained,
06:23Fernandez Duarte, Alberto, Jorge Navas, Fernando, and Danilo Esteban, mayors of the area, around
06:35or linked to drug trafficking and mafias that operate in the Zulia State.
06:42All this group of people here has been detained, these are fully identified, I have to say
06:48this, for example, aka Patas Larga is not aka Patas Larga, it's a person, and we know
06:56who he is.
06:57This is a band, a group, a band.
07:02Within the operation of Money Laundering, besides from the companies of Rincon, there
07:09is another 120 companies that are linked with this whole mafia of Money Laundering,
07:15120 new companies.
07:19So we are going over the links that all these groups have as structures with the police,
07:25with the local police, the Bolivarian National Police, some members of the military as well.
07:34Put the map, please, with the route, here we go.
07:37The whole map, the full map, leave it there.
07:50This is the route that was on the GPS of the ships that we have seized.
07:57On this route, it is impossible for them to get here from there to there without supplies.
08:11They needed the complicity from the people on the ground, and these were, you know, I
08:17pay you this much and you let me to go.
08:19I pay you this much for the fuel and you put it over here.
08:23Why?
08:26Because they didn't carry enough fuel because the spaces within the boats were used for
08:34storing drugs.
08:35Remember, we found also underwater ships to be able to learn the technology that they
08:43are using, that they are using those technologies as well.
08:47Because it doesn't matter if it is artisanal.
08:49It has its own technology because there are ships that go under the water and they only
08:53come over ground, over water, when dioxide levels are high and the person that is driving
09:05these ships have to come up and breathe.
09:08Let's go, let's do some zooming so we can see what we have done so far.
09:14Here we are seeing the path.
09:17This is the mouth of the Catatumbo River and this is the mouth of Santana River.
09:28They went over all this route, you see, we continue here, through here, stop here.
09:37See how many trips are here, continue here, leave it here.
09:42These dots, red dots, is where we find stashes.
09:51Figured that these ships would get here and here, why?
09:58Because there is a compartmentalization, everything is shared, structured and when they got here
10:04the others would go over and other people would be take charge and store the drugs somewhere
10:10else, here.
10:11Here they were received and from here they took it on land and they were stored here.
10:18This area is very swampy, it has routes, different routes and they need people, local people
10:24that know this place and then they bring the drugs over here.
10:39You can see here the route, this is what we found on the GPS of the ships that we seized.
10:44You can see the route, where do they go?
10:52They go all the way to the open sea in what appeared to be Colombian territory or right
11:01outside the Colombian waters.
11:04Now figure these two dots over here, this was also stored in the GPS.
11:10They say that in this area is where they were going to launch the false positive against
11:17the Bolivarian Navy.
11:21They have it on their GPS, we were not making anything up.
11:27You know Sandrea is here of the anti-drug department here in Venezuela, that together
11:35with the armed forces and police forces and the information they provided, the security
11:40personnel and the people has done an extraordinary work and I must pay recognition to the Bolivarian
11:47Armed Forces and to all the network and the authorities in Zulia, the police, security
11:54organizations including with the initial sentence of any official involved, this is
12:05the area I was going to use.
12:12They had a signature, a seal that said Coast Guard and this is where they were going to
12:16do the false positive.
12:19Can you zoom out, zoom out, there, now we can see the whole route, here's the route.
12:34These were where they were going to send the new shipments.
12:38Also after we seized this great amount, over 5,000 kilograms of drugs and other that we
12:48found on our rooftops, for a total of 6,441 kilograms of drugs until that moment.
13:03From that point on, one of those that were detained informed us that they had at least
13:1010 tons of drugs, he, in his operation.
13:16Part of the information that he provided and the canine units and the partners of the armed
13:25forces that got knee deep in the water, we managed to new areas and we have carried out
13:36new seizures.
13:37The first one was in this area of Las Cañoneras, over 350 kilograms of cocaine.
13:48We have a short video of when we arrived, we have it, can you run it, the video from
13:53Las Cañoneras.
14:09You can see how it is, a small beach, swampy area, that's the geography of the area, continue
14:19please, here we go, 353 kilograms of drugs and weapons, we found this there.
14:30We also found two rifles, a speedboat where the drugs were, then as we hit them here on
14:40this route by the lake, they began to look for other exits.
14:51That's how we captured those that were carrying the ones that were on the roof materials that
14:53were over 1,200 kilograms of liquid cocaine that was detected by the canine and the workers
15:01of the Bolivarian Guard.
15:05It was seen that it is small, but here looking at the amount, put the video please.
15:3553 kilograms and a half of cocaine in a car that was hidden within, we discovered this.
15:59It was the second small blow, then as intelligence work continued here, if you go over in this
16:05spot here, right here, on the Venezuelan side, this is not the Colombian side, this
16:14is the Venezuelan side, we have the information that there is a place, a location where they
16:23designed the underwater vehicles, ships, where there were special equipment, so we got there,
16:32we have the images of what we seized over there, of electronics for the navigation of
16:44underwater ships and we found vehicles, it was like a shipyard for the making of these
16:51kind of crafts.
16:54We continue, because it was our duty to continue investigating, and we arrived to the area
17:06of La Cañonera, of the Zulia State, right here in the mouth of the river, we found thanks
17:16to the intelligence investigation, over 2,000 kilograms, 2,075 kilograms of cocaine.
17:27All this must be added to what came before, the over 5,000 that we had before, 6,400.
17:36These are going to give the whole numbers, 2,075 kilograms, put the video please.
18:54Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's
19:23go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
19:34That's the level of purity that has fallen on us, of the drop, it's high purity, that
19:43just a single drop, the liquid turns blue, over 2,075 kilograms of cocaine, and we continue
19:50searching, we continue searching, because we receive information, this is a joint work.
19:58I take my hat off before these men and women, because they are true hounds, and they do
20:06not quit, and they work together and united, all the security organizations and personnel
20:11of the state, and on Wednesday night, they say, look my captain, we have this information
20:19from a new place, and they went over there, they were in the area, and they went, they
20:26arrived, and then we were to look for what they had found, and I will tell you what they
20:32found, 3,960 kilograms of drugs, almost 4 tons of cocaine, 3,960 kilograms, asides from
20:50shipments, a ship, a boat with two engines, of 250 horse powers, let's see the video of
21:00this seizure of 3,960 kilograms of drugs, almost 4 tons, 4 more tons of cocaine.
21:30Stop the video there please, see the geography of the area, how the place is, stop the video,
21:53see the shipments hidden, within these small creeks, within the mangrove.
22:23Stop the video there please, see the geography of the area, how the place is, stop the video,
22:51see the geography of the area, how the place is, stop the video, see the geography of
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23:49is, stop the video, see the geography of the area, how the place is, stop the video,
23:59see the geography of the area, how the place is, stop the video, see the geography of the
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