Colombian authorities are investigating two establishments in the city of Cucuta known for renting firearms to cartel hitmen.
The two stores rented guns and munitions by the hour or by the day depending on the preference of the customer. Authorities have already connected the store’s weapons to crimes ranging from murder to extortion.
In one store, authorities seized “three revolvers, various munitions, four cell phones, a blender with cocaine residue, and two police hats.”
Authorities also found multiple guns and munitions in another establishment which had links to the infamous Colombian drug trafficking organization Los Rastrojos. The organization is known to work with both of the national Marxist rebel organizations the Army for National Liberation (ELN) and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC). Colombian drug traffickers often act as important middlemen for Mexican drug cartels.
FARC has been implicated in this scandal given the government is currently engaged in peace negotiations with the Marxist rebels. FARC has been at war with the Colombian government for over 50 years.
ELN was recently kicked off Twitter for its terrorist activities. The rebel organization attempted to violently impose a three-day economic curfew as a way of getting the government to negotiate with the organization regarding the country’s economic model.
Cucuta, located on the Venezuelan border, is known in Colombia as a city in which organized crime thrives, particularly related to drug trafficking. Colombia is the largest cocaine producing country in the world.
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