BOGOTA – Colombia’s National Police announced Thursday that they had found and seized 2,175 kilos (4,790 pounds) of cocaine that was buried several meters (yards) beneath the desert in the northern province of La Guajira, bordering Venezuela.

The drug stash, with an estimated street value of $65 million, belonged to Los Rastrojos, a paramilitary band of drug traffickers, police said in a statement.

After several months of monitoring and investigation, “Operation Arrebol” came to fruition when uniformed police officers arrived at a spot in Alta Guajira where they found the drug stored in a specially prepared underground hideout, the police said in a communique.

The cocaine was divided into 87 bundles and further split into 1,740 packets, which were enclosed with a waterproof material designed to isolate the narcotic when it was ultimately transported by sea to its destination, which police did not specify.

No arrests were made. EFE