BOGOTA — Colombian authorities said Monday they seized more than a ton of cocaine in a raid in the northern La Guajira region bordering Venezuela.

The haul was aboard a truck with Venezuelan license plates that was intercepted in a rural area in an operation coordinated with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Colombia's National Police said.

Guards protecting the shipment opened fire during the raid and fled, abandoning the cocaine, police said.

Investigators believe the Colombian drug cartel Los Rastrojos was transporting the drug for shipment on fast boats from La Guajira to Central America.

Colombia vies with Peru as the world's top producer of cocaine, turning out 309 tons of the drug in 2012.