INTERPOL-backed operation seizes more than 3,000 guns, 56 tonnes of drugs

Po­lice across 20 coun­tries in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, South Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean have seized 3,308 il­le­gal firearms and 56 tonnes of il­lic­it drugs dur­ing a large-scale co­or­di­nat­ed op­er­a­tion led by IN­TER­POL, with sup­port from the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS).

The op­er­a­tion, Or­ca XI, ran from Oc­to­ber 15 to No­vem­ber 30, 2025. IN­TER­POL over­saw op­er­a­tional co­or­di­na­tion, while the OAS as­sist­ed in strength­en­ing re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion. The Eu­ro­pean Union pro­vid­ed fund­ing for the ini­tia­tive.

“These ef­forts re­flect pri­or­i­ties cur­rent­ly be­ing ad­vanced by OAS, with­in the frame­work of the In­ter-Amer­i­can Con­ven­tion against the Il­lic­it Man­u­fac­tur­ing of and Traf­fick­ing in Firearms, Am­mu­ni­tion, Ex­plo­sives, and Oth­er Re­lat­ed Ma­te­ri­als (CIF­TA), which is plac­ing re­newed em­pha­sis on strength­en­ing crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the ori­gin, di­ver­sion, and traf­fick­ing of firearms, am­mu­ni­tion, and ex­plo­sives, as a strat­e­gy to dis­man­tle crim­i­nal or­ga­ni­za­tions and dis­rupt or­ga­nized crime,” the OAS said.

Op­er­a­tion Or­ca XI re­sult­ed in 8,701 ar­rests re­lat­ed to firearm and drug pos­ses­sion or traf­fick­ing, as well as oth­er crimes and of­fences.

The OAS said of­fi­cers al­so seized near­ly 200,000 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion, US$256,025 in cash, and 210 ve­hi­cles.

“Firearms traf­fick­ing in the re­gion is in­ex­tri­ca­bly linked to oth­er forms of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, in­clud­ing drug traf­fick­ing, hu­man traf­fick­ing, mi­grant smug­gling, and cy­ber­crime,” the OAS said. “The or­gan­ised crim­i­nal groups and gangs be­hind these crimes fre­quent­ly use the same traf­fick­ing routes for mul­ti­ple il­lic­it com­modi­ties.”

It said Op­er­a­tion Or­ca XI high­light­ed this con­nec­tion.

The OAS said 10 par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries al­so re­port­ed sig­nif­i­cant drug seizures, in­clud­ing: 6.9 tonnes of co­caine, 659,403 units of co­ca plants, 9.3 tonnes of co­caine base paste, 38.5 tons of mar­i­jua­na, 2 tonnes of metham­phet­a­mine and 11 kg of ke­t­a­mine.

“This is what suc­cess looks like when hemi­spher­ic co­or­di­na­tion and world-class tech­ni­cal and op­er­a­tional ca­pac­i­ty join forces: thou­sands of firearms off the streets, drugs seized, and safer com­mu­ni­ties,” said OAS Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Al­bert R. Ramdin.

“Op­er­a­tion Or­ca XI proves that in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion and in­for­ma­tion shar­ing get re­sults—and our se­cu­ri­ty frame­works must con­tin­ue de­liv­er­ing,” he added. “The OAS stands ready to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing mem­ber states with part­ners like IN­TER­POL for the ben­e­fit of the Amer­i­c­as.”

IN­TER­POL Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Valde­cy Urquiza said: “The thou­sands of firearms re­moved from cir­cu­la­tion thanks to Op­er­a­tion Or­ca XI and the sig­nif­i­cant quan­ti­ties of drugs seized rep­re­sent re­al progress in the fight against or­gan­ised crime.”

“IN­TER­POL’s com­mit­ment re­mains to sup­port law en­force­ment agen­cies with the in­tel­li­gence, tools and co­or­di­na­tion they need to stay ahead of these evolv­ing threats,” he added.

The OAS said the op­er­a­tion was held in co­or­di­na­tion with the Com­mis­sion of Cen­tral Amer­i­can, Mex­i­can, Caribbean, and Colom­bian Po­lice Chiefs and Di­rec­tors.

The OAS said par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries in­clud­ed Ar­genti­na, Be­lize, Bo­livia, Brazil, Chile, Colom­bia, Cos­ta Ri­ca, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Ecuador, El Sal­vador, Guyana, Guatemala, Hon­duras, Mex­i­co, Nicaragua, Pana­ma, Paraguay, Pe­ru, Suri­name and Uruguay. —WASH­ING­TON, D.C. (CMC)