An operation called Oracle AE2 dismantled an international network that supplied weapons to the FARC and other groups. The operation was coordinated between the Navy, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI), and the criminal investigation agencies of Honduras and Panama, as well as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States.

The coordinated efforts over the past 18 months allowed authorities to simultaneously capture seven members of this network in Barranquilla and San Andres Island, as well as two previous operations. Among those captured is Franklin William Mc Field Bent, alias “El Buda”, from Nicaragua, who was identified as one of the persons responsible for receiving narcotics by sea from the Caribbean coast, using the Central Corridor. Also, the man located contacts in Colombia for the purchase of weapons, which would be negotiated with organizations outside of the law. He has already been convicted of arms and narcotics trafficking and conspiracy. Edwin Leonardo Rodríguez Len, alias “El Señor de las Cadenas,” was responsible for sending narcotics from Colombia to “El Buda.”

Miguel Villela, a Honduran citizen was arrested in the operation.

The suspects all face criminal conspiracy, as well as arms and drug charges, the DAS said.

The ring smuggled arms from Central America to illegal armed groups in Colombia, receiving cocaine in exchange for the weapons.