Operation Multi-Dimensional

November 13, 2018 Crime , OPINION/NEWS , OTHER , South America

PNC photo

By

Ricardo Swire

Colombia’s most powerful criminal organization Los Rastrojos demonstrated tenacity, sophistication and power with a brazen cross-border attack in Venezuela. On October 30, 2018 a squad of seventy Rastrojos gunmen armed with AK47 assault rifles, grenades and high-powered armament, attacked the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) Detachment 212’s La Mulata outpost.

The GNB Non Commissioned Officer in-charge of the platoon, based at the military station twenty meters from Colombia’s border, was forcefully abducted by Los Rastrojos gunmen. Two AK-103 rifles, five associated speed chargers loaded with thirty bullets each or one hundred and fifty cartridges, plus confidential military documents and four mobile phones were stolen from the Venezuelan military site.

Earlier the same day a GNB/Special Border Unit team arrested two Los Rastrojos members in Pedro Maria Urena town Venezuela. More than one hundred Operation Multi-Dimensional troops led by a Naval Captain intercepted the two Colombian detainees who were armed with illegal assault rifles and armament. Law enforcers quickly transferred the Rastrojos duo to camp Garochal in San Antonio de el Tachira, Venezuela.

The General in command of GNB’s 21st Infantry Brigade of Táchira deployed reinforcements to La Mulata, La Laja, Garrochal border stations. Another tactical manoeuvre along the Venezuela/Colombia border forced Los Rastrojos infiltrators to defend. The captured GNB Sergeant from La Mulata base was released one day later. Los Rastrojos representatives also returned the two AK-103 rifles stolen from the military base’s armory.

In addition to Venezuela the Russian made 7.62mm AK103 or latest incarnation of the AK-47 assault rifle is officially supplied to Arabia, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Los Rastrojos’ aggressive retaliatory action was preceded by the national police’s Special Action Forces (FAES) detention of six Los Rastrojos affiliates, linked to illegal gasoline smuggling along the Colombia/Venezuela border.

Earlier in 2018 Venezuelan bureaucrats announced implementation of national security activity designed to eradicate illegal Colombian/Venezuelan cross-border activities in Tachirenses, Orope Cano Amarillo, Cano Bocono, and La Palmita, identified sectors where Los Rastrojos and gasoline smuggling mafias operates. A former police officer turned Congressman was appointed as the enforcement plan’s overseer. However his name features prominently on the US Treasury Department’s “Kingpin List,” for having strong links to paramilitary guerrilla groups headquartered in Colombia.