The anti-drug brigade of Maldonado department police raided three rural properties in Paraje La Coronilla, near the city of Aiguá, where marijuana was being grown without authorisation.[1] The properties lay about 10 kilometres from Ruta 39 at kilometre 78, in sierra country where different cannabis varieties with different THC levels were cultivated and processed.[1] FM Gente reported that the investigation began about five months earlier over complaints of an illegal cannabis crop in the sierras of Aiguá, identified from light aircraft because the area was hard to reach by vehicle.[2]

Officers seized 746 marijuana plants, 3.24 kg of cannabis buds and 8.431 kg of plants in the drying phase, and detained four people there.[1] The Interior Ministry estimated the market value of the haul at 1,100,000 Uruguayan pesos.[1] Containers fitted out as greenhouses held equipment to control temperature, humidity and light, including air conditioners, halogen lamps, humidity regulators, dehumidifiers, fans and fertilisers.[1]

Police also searched a house in the city of San Carlos, where they detained a woman who had marijuana cigarettes, eight plants and 19 packets of cannabis.[1] Five people were detained in total, four at the properties and the woman in San Carlos.[1]

Two were summoned by the prosecutor’s office and three were formally charged with production of narcotic substances in real reiteration together with possession not for consumption.[1] Two of the three must serve 60 days of preventive detention and the third total house arrest for 90 days.[1] The searches were carried out with the IRCCA, Uruguay’s cannabis regulation and control institute, and the second-shift prosecutor’s office of San Carlos.[1] FM Gente reported that the three men were formalized at a hearing on Friday afternoon.[2] The prosecution had asked for 90 days of preventive detention for all three; the court gave two of them 60 days in custody and the third house arrest, a decision prosecutors appealed.[2]