TUMACO, Colombia — Law enforcement authorities in Colombia have dismantled a “gigantic complex” used by an organized crime group to produce tons of cocaine.

The operation, conducted in coordination with the National Army and the Attorney General’s Office, took place in a rural area near the Curay River in Tumaco, a southwestern city close to the country’s border with Ecuador, the Colombian Navy announced on Dec. 20.

Troops destroyed the eight-structure drug laboratory believed to be operated by the “Western Block Alfonso Cano,” a Residual Organized Armed Group, in a “controlled manner at the scene, under strict security regulations and keeping all the measures for the preservation of the environment.”