Colombian narcotics police report no taskforce records as AFP says team is not operating

Colombia’s National Police anti-narcotics department says it has no recorded procedures for an Australian Federal Police-backed drug taskforce planned for Bogotá, ABC News and Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported on 22 October. The AFP says the international team is not yet operational and points to an agreement with a different Colombian police office. The distinction raises questions about how the planned team will work with officers responsible for drug enforcement.

In May, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett announced that the AFP and New Zealand Police would help fund an International Joint Investigations Team in Colombia to gather evidence about illicit drug shipments. The AFP said Australian Border Force and New Zealand Customs would support it. The plan was presented as part of a wider effort to disrupt drugs moving toward Australia and the Pacific.

What Colombian narcotics police reported

The department described an August letter of intent as a framework for cooperation and information exchange. It said the document did not identify the taskforce or assign the department specific functions, responsibilities or procedures. Nor, it said, did the letter connect the team to joint seizures, destruction of drug-production facilities, disruption of criminal groups or identification of trafficking routes.

What the AFP says was agreed

The AFP told the ABC that an annex agreement with Colombia’s National Police was made in August in addition to the letter of intent. It said those arrangements would let the team focus on transnational organised crime networks. The AFP gave no date for the team to become operational.

The ABC reported that the taskforce agreement was made with, and was expected to be overseen by, the Colombian police Office of International Relations and Cooperation, rather than the anti-narcotics department. That accounts for the offices describing different records, but it leaves unclear when frontline drug police will be brought into the planned work.

The AFP’s May announcement cited more than 20 tonnes of cocaine seized through AFP-Colombian cooperation in recent years, including 5.5 tonnes found on a semi-submersible in the Pacific in October 2024. Those figures concern earlier cooperation, before the proposed team was announced. The AFP also said 17 tonnes of illicit drugs had been seized across the Pacific since January 2026, illustrating the regional trafficking pressure behind its plan.