Drug  trafficking

12 tons of cocaine, worth $360 million, seized in massive Colombia raid

Colombian authorities seized 12 tons of cocaine worth an estimated $360 million in the country's largest-ever drug bust -- and they put the goods on display.

Four hundred anti-narcotics officers found the cocaine stored underground in four farms in a banana-growing region of northwest Antioquia province, near the border with Panama.

Officials said the drug belonged to the Clan del Golfo, an illegal armed group that has sought to take over drug trafficking operations in zones previously occupied by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

President Juan Manuel Santos, surrounded by armed soldiers, walked on hundreds of packets of cocaine which had been laid out like a carpet at a police base.

“Thanks to a police operation with overseas intelligence, from friendly countries, the largest seizure in history was made,” he said, according to Reuters.

The seizure comes as the United States and the United Nations have raised concerns over an increase in coca cultivation. Both say coca and cocaine production surged last year in Colombia.