BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian police on Tuesday announced the capture of 121 people charged with kidnapping and extortion in a massive operation that was conducted in various cities and provinces targeted by drug traffickers and rebel groups.

The deployment known as “Operation Jade” targeted members of several illegal groups including the Gulf Clan, the National Liberation Army and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

“We are sending the unequivocal message that in Colombia there is no space for kidnappings and extortion,” the director of Colombia’s National Police, Gen. William Oswaldo Rincón, said in a statement Tuesday, adding that “every arrest weakens the finances of criminal groups and returns tranquility to communities.”

The arrests were carried out in large cities including Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena, as well as in smaller cities in the provinces of Choco, Huila and Cesar.

Colombia’s government has struggled to contain drug traffickers and rebel groups that are now fighting over territory abandoned by the nation’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, following its 2016 peace deal with the government.

These groups often finance themselves by taxing local businesses and kidnapping civilians for ransom.

In 2025 the Ministry of Defense registered 651 cases in which people were kidnapped for ransom, a 108% increase from the previous year.

Extortion is also a crime that worries authorities, although cases appear to be decreasing.

In 2025 the Defense Ministry registered 12,180 cases of extortion, a 12% decrease from the previous year.

El Salvador’s government recently filed a complaint against Colombia, alleging that prisoners in the South American country were threatening Salvadoran residents through extortion calls. In response, Colombia blocked mobile phone signals in three prisons from where the calls had apparently been made.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america