The Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD, in Spanish) intercepted a truck carrying 1,635 kilograms of marijuana bound for Brazil, on January 22.
Agents from SENAD’s Regional Office in Ciudad del Este, in the Tri-border area, found the drug distributed among 47 packages, inside a false bottom in the truck. The inspection took place in Acaray, a vehicle supply area in Alto Paraná department.
“Confidential information that we handled with the Office of the Attorney General indicated that a truck would be transporting a large quantity of marijuana,” Marcelo Benítez, SENAD officer in charge of the operation, told the Paraguayan TV channel GEN.
According to Benítez, the driver had left the truck parked at a gas station in the morning. There, the vehicle was to be loaded with grain bags to hide the drug before crossing into Brazil.
Authorities later identified the driver, the Paraguayan Information Agency reported.
Brazilian narcotraffickers detained in Paraguay
On January 16, SENAD agents detained a Brazilian narcotrafficker who had an arrest warrant in the neighboring country.
The agents arrested Marcelo Rocha Costa, who was wanted in Brazil for narcotrafficking, murder, and smuggling.
“Rocha Costa was in a house in the 15 de agosto neighborhood, in the border town of Salto del Guairá,” the Paraguayan newspaper La Nación reported.
Intelligence work and SENAD’s collaboration with Brazilian authorities made the capture possible.
On January 23, in another operation, anti-drug agents captured three Brazilians who were processing cocaine in the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero.
According to SENAD, one of them had a criminal record for arms trafficking.
Agents detained the three individuals in a house used as a clandestine lab, in the Mariscal Estigarribia neighborhood.
