Colombia says it has seized more than 7.5 tons of cocaine worth $286 million in a joint operation with the United States. Colombia Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said the cocaine was seized inside a Colombian-flagged vessel near Panama. Trujillo said the drugs were mixed with a construction product and smuggled from Colombia’s coastal city of Cartagena bound for the port of Colon in Panama. Authorities said the drugs are tied to the Gulf Clan organized armed group, with an eventual destination to Central America and Europe. There was no immediate word of any arrests.  Although Colombia has been the focus of years of anti-narcotics measures, the country remains one of the world’s top cocaine producers.   
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