Last winter: Rastrojos Demonstrate Power with Attack on Venezuela Military Base
Rastrojos Demonstrate Power with Attack on Venezuela Military Base
BRIEF Written by Venezuela Investigative Unit - NOVEMBER 5, 2018
A recent attack by Colombian criminal group, Los Rastrojos, on a military base in Venezuela confirms that the group is gathering strength in the country and will not hold back in its confrontations with Venezuelan security forces in order to safeguard its criminal markets along the border.
On October 30, between 70 and 100 Rastrojos members stormed Venezuelan military base La Mulata, which belongs to Detachment 212 of the Bolivarian National Guard (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana – GNB) and sits just 20 meters from the Colombian border, according to the official version of the event reported in La Nación.
Another report from the daily, El Colombiano, added that the attackers carried two AK-103 rifles, grenades, as well as long-range weapons. They also took the base commander, Sergeant Gerson Hernández Sanguino, as a hostage.
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Hours before the attack, the GNB had arrested two members of the Rastrojos in Venezuelan territory. And 11 days before that, the Special Action Forces (Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales – FAES) of the national police arrested another six members of the armed group. These arrests were part of an operation to combat gasoline smuggling at the border and came at the order of Freddy Bernal, the new “protector” of the state of Táchira and a key supporter of President Nicolás Maduro’s administration.
More:
https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/rastrojos-demonstrate-power-attack-venezuela-military-base/
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Wikipedia description of the paramilitary narcotraffickers, Rastrojos:
Los Rastrojos is a largely dismantled Colombian drug cartel formerly engaged in the Colombian armed conflict. The group was formed by Norte del Valle cartel capo Wilber Varela, alias "Jabon" and one of his right-hand men, "Diego Rastrojo", around 2004 when Varela fell out with fellow-capo Diego Leon Montoya, alias "Don Diego".[2] The group became independent after the murder of its main founder in Venezuela in 2008 and at its hight was one of the most important drug trafficking organizations in Colombia.
The group funds itself primarily by trafficking cocaine, marijuana and heroin, and illegal gold mining, thus taking advantage of high gold prices in 2010 and 2011.[3][4]
Los Rastrojos are, together with the Norte del Valle cartel, considered the "heirs" of the Cali cartel. Other reports allege Los Rastrojos are in fact the same as the Norte del Valle cartel, only working under a new name and taking advantage 'of a strong network of assassins, distributors and contacts in the international markets'.[5] the group focuses on buying coca from the source, processing it themselves and selling it wholesale for international distribution or shipping it themselves through Central America and Mexico.
They are believed to operate mainly in Valle del Cauca and Cali, although there are reports of them spreading their zone of influence to other parts of Colombia and western Venezuela.[6] Membership is estimated at 1,200 to 1,500 fighters and hitmen.[7] Several members of Los Rastrojos have been killed or arrested in Venezuela by the Venezuelan armed forces.[8]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Rastrojos