Officers detained three people, two Colombians and a Chilean, in three separate drug operations in Calama and Sierra Gorda, and a judge remanded all three in pre-trial custody.[1] The prosecutor’s office formalised the operation as an anti-drug push with the Fiscalía SAC, the Antofagasta prosecutor’s specialised unit, and Carabineros against groups using the region for transit and distribution.[1]

In the first operation, investigators identified a marijuana storehouse in Calama’s western sector and obtained search warrants, finding 595 kilos 200 grams of marijuana packed in sacks and parcels.[1] In a second Calama operation, OS7 officers with a sniffer dog checked a vehicle on the CH-21 highway and found three suitcases carrying 273 kilos 100 grams of marijuana.[1] In Sierra Gorda, a truck tried to avoid a vehicle check at the Route 5 North toll plaza, and officers of the Baquedano post stopped it and found 100 parcels holding 104 kilos 630 grams of cannabis sativa in its cargo area.[1]

The three operations together took 972 kilos 930 grams of marijuana off the roads.[1] Antofagasta regional prosecutor Juan Castro Bekios said the load equalled about two million doses, roughly three for every resident of the region, and put the region’s seizures at 61 tonnes so far in 2026.[1] Castro Bekios said drug-trafficking routes are the same ones used by copper thieves and called for pursuing the whole chain rather than “the visible piece”.[1]

General Cristian Montre Soto, head of Carabineros’ Antofagasta zone, said the seizures came from an integral strategy covering the border, roads and urban sites such as informal settlements used to store drugs.[1]