Army copter crash kills 10 in Venezuela

Helicopter crash in Venezuela has killed ten members of the country’s National Guard who were on a mission to track drug traffickers near the Colombian border.

The crash took place in western Apure State near the Colombian border on Friday as three officers along with seven soldiers were taking off on a counter-narcotics mission.

“Three officers and seven soldiers belonging to the Bolivarian National Guard force died late Friday in an accident involving a helicopter… that was search for narcotics traffickers,” Commander General Luis Alfredo Dominguez was quoted by the state news service AVN.

The cause of the accident, which occurred near the town of Buena Vista in Apure, remains unknown.

“These citizens were killed in the line of duty, in fact, we have now captured one of the people we were looking for,” Dominguez said.

Venezuela lies on the main route that carries Colombian cocaine destined for Europe and the United States.