Colombian police confiscate 3.3 tonnes of cocaine and flaunt it for the cameras

But the shipment is just 1% of what the country produces a year

A counter-narcotic police stands guard packages of seized cocaine at the police station as it are show to the media in Necocli

As one of the biggest cocaine producers in the world, Colombia turns out a truly breath-taking quantity of the narcotic every year.

Unsurprisingly, police are pleased to vaunt it when they carry out a major bust – as with the pictures below, which show around 3.3 tonnes of the banned substance lined up in the jungle sun.

Officers said the haul represented a single shipment that was ready to go for international exportation, and has an estimated street value of about $90 million (£58 million).

Yet what is perhaps more shocking is the fact that it makes up no more than about 1 per cent of the estimated annual production of cocaine in Colombia – put at 300 tonnes by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Police said the confiscated drugs belonged to the Colombian Usuga Clan, which is the country’s largest criminal group with at least 2,000 members. Colombian authorities have offered a $600,000 reward for information leading to the capture of its leader.

“The shipment was ready to leave on a river to the Caribbean or the border with Panama, to be sent on to Mexico,” said General Rodolfo Palomino, the head of Colombia's national police.

Just last week, police discovered 3 tonnes of cocaine in the port terminal in Cartagena, a popular tourist hub on Colombia's Caribbean coast. The drugs were also bound for Mexico.