Apucarana region marijuana seizures reach 10.3 tonnes, up 110%
Marijuana seizures in the Apucarana region of Paraná rose from 4.9 tonnes between January and September 2025 to 10.3 tonnes in 2026, up 109.8% in state security statistics. Most of the volume came from a Federal Highway Police interception of 6.8 tonnes on the BR-376 on 23 September, which ended with the truck driver arrested.
Between January and September 2026, seizures in the Apucarana region reached
10.3 tonnes of marijuana, up from 4.9 tonnes in the same period of 2025.[1]The region’s marijuana seizure figures rose 109.8% year on year, according to
the Cape statistics centre of the Parana public security secretariat (Sesp).[1]
Most of the year’s total came from a Federal Highway Police (Polícia Rodoviária
Federal, PRF) interception of 6.8 tonnes of marijuana on the BR-376 in Apucarana
on 23 September 2026.[1]The PRF said the drug was found while officers
checked the semi-trailers and weighed at 6.8 tonnes.[2]The driver was taken
with the load to the Civil Police station in Apucarana.[2]
In the 17th regional security division, which covers the region, seizures of
marijuana plants fell from 28 units in 2025 to five, with one plant unit found
in Apucarana municipality against ten the year before.[1]The same balance
shows hashish seizures of 14 kg in the region in 2025 and none in the period
analysed this year.[1]Cocaine paste seizures in the region rose from zero to
49 kg, while crack fell from 88 kg to 2 kg and ready-to-use cocaine from 32 kg
to 8 kg, all outside the cannabis figures.[1]
Photos and video
Federal Highway Police officers with the 6.8-tonne marijuana load intercepted under a corn manifest on the BR-376 in Apucarana in September; lead photo of the article, credited Divulgação PRF.Photo details
The statistics cover the region and the area of the 17th regional security division (17ª SDP), whose exact boundaries are not defined in the text; the article does not list which municipalities are included.
The 10.3-tonne regional figure is an aggregate; no breakdown by single seizure was published, apart from the 6.8 tonnes taken on 23 September.
The article gives no independent street value for either year's seizures.
One plant unit was reported seized in Apucarana municipality this year, but no count of plants destroyed was given, and the report does not say what happened to the plants.
No charge or court outcome is reported for the truck driver arrested on 23 September.
The two articles are published by the same newspaper group (Tribuna do Norte and TNOnline) and repeat the same service text, so they are not independent accounts.
Coordinates are for the centre of Apucarana, the named seat of the region, not for the BR-376 interception point.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in TNOnline: The load was carried on a semi-trailer truck fitted with a corn cargo manifest, and officers arrested the 40-year-old driver.
Federal Highway Police arrested a 44-year-old truck driver in the early hours of 11 November 2026 after finding more than half a tonne of skunk, about 591 packages, in a false bottom of his truck's cargo body at km 319 of the BR-070 in Jussara, Goiás. The load had left Cacoal, Rondônia, bound for Goiânia, and the driver was to be paid R$10,000.
Paraná's Border Police Battalion and federal agencies seized 7,781 kg of marijuana and skunk hidden in a maize load on a bitrem truck stopped on BR-163 near Marechal Cândido Rondon, and arrested a 30-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman. The operation, part of Operação Protetor, ran from 10 to 11 November 2026, and the battalion put the loss to organised crime at R$16,318,000.
Federal Highway Police officers seized 245.6 kilograms of marijuana from a white Chevrolet Onix that fled an inspection on the BR-163 in Lindoeste, western Paraná, on the night of 10 November 2026. The 25-year-old driver and a 16-year-old passenger were taken with the car and the drug to the Civil Police station in Cascavel.
Military Police in Lajinha found 58 marijuana tablets hidden in a stove in an abandoned house on 10 November 2026 and seized 62 tablets in all. A 20-year-old was arrested and a 17-year-old was taken into custody, and both were taken to the Civil Police station in Manhuaçu.
