Cerro Largo police seized 42.067 kilos of marijuana buds at the Brazilian border in an operation coordinated with Brazil’s Civil Police.[1]

At 18:00 on 29 January the Cerro Largo police command was told by Brazil’s Civil Police of a possible drug handover at the Aceguá border and of armed people possibly in the area.[1] The departmental anti-drug brigade and the tactical reserve group (GRT) set up surveillance and swept the area with drones.[1] Officers found several nylon bags of marijuana buds inside a precarious sheet-metal building in open countryside.[1] La Voz de Melo reported that two men arrived and began moving bags before fleeing in a vehicle, and that police first found 3 kilos of the drug.[2]

On 30 January video-surveillance officers linked a car registered in Montevideo to the case.[1] Raids in Barrio Darcena and Cuchilla de las Flores, in Melo, ended with the arrest of two adult men, the seizure of the car and 24,420 Uruguayan pesos.[1] A court convicted the two men, aged 23 and 25, of repeated offences of supplying narcotics, one of them attempted, and gave them two years and six months and three years in prison respectively.[1]

Brazilian officer Cristiano Ritta said the joint work with Uruguay prevented more than 80,000 portions of marijuana from reaching Brazil.[2] La Voz de Melo called the seizure the largest ever recorded in that border town.[2] La Voz de Melo also reported that the seized material was sent to Melo and that the first-shift prosecutor’s office was continuing the investigation.[2]