The Brazilian Air Force intercepted a helicopter that had entered Brazilian airspace without authorisation and was carrying about 240 kilos of skunk.[1] The account describes the load as skunk, a high-potency psychoactive cannabis variety, and says the helicopter came from Venezuela.[1]

Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, said the intercepted aircraft “no es de Venezuela”, but belonged to drug traffickers, and he did not name its country of origin.[1] Speaking in Caracas on the Wednesday, Cabello warned of a drug-related “falso positivo” said to be in progress.[1] In the same speech Cabello said that “no se producen drogas” in Venezuela and that more than 80 tonnes of drugs had been seized in the country, without saying over what period.[1]

The account gives no number of people on board the helicopter, no arrests and no legal step taken over the flight.[1] The same article separately reports Guinea-Bissau’s largest recorded cocaine seizure, 2,633.1 kilograms flown in from Venezuela, in which five crew members were detained; that cocaine case is left out of this cannabis report.[1]