Po­lice across 20 coun­tries in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, South Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean have seized 3,308 il­le­gal firearms and 56 tonnes of il­lic­it drugs dur­ing a large-scale co­or­di­nat­ed op­er­a­tion led by IN­TER­POL, with sup­port from the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS).

The op­er­a­tion, Or­ca XI, ran from Oc­to­ber 15 to No­vem­ber 30, 2025. IN­TER­POL over­saw op­er­a­tional co­or­di­na­tion, while the OAS as­sist­ed in strength­en­ing re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion. The Eu­ro­pean Union pro­vid­ed fund­ing for the ini­tia­tive.

“These ef­forts re­flect pri­or­i­ties cur­rent­ly be­ing ad­vanced by OAS, with­in the frame­work of the In­ter-Amer­i­can Con­ven­tion against the Il­lic­it Man­u­fac­tur­ing of and Traf­fick­ing in Firearms, Am­mu­ni­tion, Ex­plo­sives, and Oth­er Re­lat­ed Ma­te­ri­als (CIF­TA), which is plac­ing re­newed em­pha­sis on strength­en­ing crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the ori­gin, di­ver­sion, and traf­fick­ing of firearms, am­mu­ni­tion, and ex­plo­sives, as a strat­e­gy to dis­man­tle crim­i­nal or­ga­ni­za­tions and dis­rupt or­ga­nized crime,” the OAS said.