Brazilian and Paraguayan security forces have jointly dealt successive blows to narcotrafficking in recent weeks.
On September 22, the Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD, in Spanish) dismantled a clandestine cocaine laboratory in the city of Villa Elisa.
“[Agents] detained a Brazilian national who is supposedly responsible for cutting the drug with solvents and packaging it with presses and metal plates,” SENAD said in a statement.
On August 24, SENAD agents seized 2.5 tons of marijuana destined for Brazil. The agents entered a forest area in the Maracaná municipality, Canindeyú department, following an investigation into the existence of bales hidden in the weeds.
“The anti-drug group detected 1,000 kilograms of pressed marijuana and 1,500 kg of chopped marijuana, hidden under tents in the thick bush of the mountain,” SENAD reported.
That same day, SENAD and the Brazilian Federal Police (PF, in Portuguese) concluded the combined Operation New Alliance (Operación Nueva Alianza) XXII, which eradicated marijuana crops in Paraguay.
“During the operation, authorities destroyed 127 hectares of illicit crops in the Pedro Juan Caballero region, on the Paraguayan-Brazilian border,” the PF reported.
According to the institution, the seizure amounts to more than 650 tons of marijuana that was bound for the Brazilian market. Agents also incinerated 1,190 kg of cannabis seeds and destroyed 70 clandestine campsites that supported drug production and distribution.
Aboard PF helicopters, the authorities of both countries flew over the border area and learned about the operational tasks deployed.
“SENAD and the PF conducted five combined marijuana eradication operations in the last two years, destroying 3,900 tons of cannabis,” SENAD said.
Brazil is the main destination for Paraguayan marijuana (77 percent), followed by Argentina (20 percent), according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s World Drug Report 2020.