1,344 kg of marijuana seized in two Calama-Baquedano road checks
Carabineros seized 1,344 kg of marijuana in two van checks on Route 5 and at Calama's southern exit on 15-16 March 2026, detaining four people. The operation also yielded 4 kg of cocaine hydrochloride, excluded from the cannabis figure, and all detainees awaited formal charging.
🇨🇱 Southern exit of Calama and Route 5 at Baquedano, Antofagasta region · Chile
Officers detained two Chilean men where the second van was stopped at Calama’s
southern exit and seized171 kilograms of marijuana there.[1]Follow-up work
by the Fiscalía’s SACFI unit with Carabineros OS7 led to the detention in the
Metropolitan Region of two other men linked to the transport.[1]All those
detained in the recent procedures were to be formally charged by the Public
Ministry in the coming hours and days.[1]
The two recent procedures together yielded 1,344 kilograms of marijuana and 4
kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride outside Calama and in the Baquedano sector.[1]The report of the two procedures covers 1.3 tonnes of drugs and says the
operations in Calama and Baquedano recovered marijuana and cocaine.[2]The
first van, stopped on Route 5 on Sunday afternoon, carried 34 sacks holding
1,173 kilograms of marijuana plus 4 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride.[3]The
second van was stopped at the southern exit of Calama the previous night after
fleeing a vehicle check and hitting the road’s containment barriers during a
controlled pursuit.[3]
Regional prosecutor Juan Castro Bekios said the team had created a special
investigative focus on border routes and trafficking that seeks digital,
financial and logistical traces beyond drugs in transit.[3]General Cristian
Montre Soto, head of the Antofagasta Carabineros zone, said the latest seizures
came from a consolidated operational strategy centred on permanent control of
certain routes.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
SoyChilesoychile.clESMás de 1,3 toneladas de droga incautadas tras fiscalización de furgones en rutas de la región
TVNtvn.clESIncautan 1.348 kilos de drogas en dos procedimientos en Antofagasta
Open questions the AI reported
The article published 17 March 2026 dates the first stop to Sunday afternoon and the second to the previous night, so 15 and 16 March 2026 are inferred and the incident date uses the latest night, 16 March.
The 4 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride are excluded from kg_seized; the combined 1,348-kilogram headline total is not used as a cannabis figure.
The names and ages of the four detained people were not published; two were described only as Chileans and two only as men linked to the transport.
No charges, custody ruling or court outcome were reported; formal charging was still pending at publication.
Year-to-date and since-October-2023 regional seizure totals mentioned in the article describe other operations and are left out of figures.
Both SoyChile and TVN present the agencies' version; no defence or independent witness account was published.
The PDI's anti-narcotics brigade in Calama seized 186 kg of pressed marijuana at a stash point in the border area near San Pedro de Atacama, a find the local prosecutor said came from the internal border task force. The PDI valued the load at 900 million pesos and said it would be destroyed.
Carabineros' OS-7 unit in Cachapoal detained a 23-year-old man after seizing more than two kilos of marijuana from an interprovincial bus at kilometre 58 of Ruta 5 Sur in Mostazal. Drug-detecting dog Kelsy alerted officers to the luggage, and the man was placed at the disposal of the Ministerio Público on a trafficking allegation.
Carabineros detained a 50-year-old driver at a vehicle check on the northern access to the Coquimbo Region and seized 30.36 kg of processed marijuana in 30 packages. The Tenencia Carreteras Elqui found two packages in the car and OS7 officers found another 28 a short distance from the check point.
Carabineros in Chile's Atacama region detained five Chilean adults after officers found 140 marijuana packages in two vehicles at a service station on Route 5 Norte in Chañaral, and seized 156 kg 692 g of marijuana. Prosecutors formalised trafficking charges against the five and a Chañaral court placed them all in preventive detention; Carabineros valued the haul at about 1.57 billion pesos.
