Senad weighs a record 5,554 kg of Chaco marijuana after two border stashes
Paraguayan anti-drug agents found two marijuana cargoes hidden in bush at Gabino Mendoza and General Eugenio Garay, near the Bolivian border, on 23 and 24 September 2018. Weighed at Senad's Infante Rivarola base, together they came to 5,554 kilograms of pressed marijuana, which the agency called one of the largest seizures in the Chaco.
🇵🇾 Gabino Mendoza and General Eugenio A. Garay, Boquerón department, Paraguay (weighed at the Senad base in Infante Rivarola) · Paraguay
Senad, Paraguay’s national anti-drug secretariat, reported that the two loads
came to 5,554 kilograms of pressed marijuana once they were weighed.[1]The
agency called it one of the biggest marijuana seizures in the Chaco, the
sparsely populated region along the Bolivian border.[1]Fresh marijuana from
Paraguay’s departments is traded across that border for Bolivian coca paste,
which the reporting describes as the traffic the two loads fed.[2]
The people with the pickup left the vehicle and the load when they saw the
officers coming.[2]That first cargo weighed 2,622 kilograms.[1]The same
operating group found the second stash on the morning of Monday 24 September in
bush at General Eugenio Garay; much of it was pressed marijuana and some sacks
held chopped marijuana.[2]The second cargo weighed 2,932 kilograms.[1]
Both loads were taken to Senad’s base at Infante Rivarola in Boquerón
department, where officers examined them package by package.[1]La Nación
reported that the loads only reached Infante Rivarola on Wednesday 26 September,
after some vehicles were stuck for a time in the mud.[3]
The Senad statement said the loads were apparently bound for Bolivia.[1]
Photos and video
An officer of Senad's Chaco regional office stands beside stacked sacks of the seized marijuana; ABC Color published the pictures without captions or credits.Photo details
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Source: ABC ColorA second ABC Color picture from the story, published without a caption or credit; the page places it with the account of the two loads.Photo details
Senad and ABC Color give 5,554 kilograms as the final weighed total; Radio Oasis FM and ADN Digital, citing the Senad regional office in Mariscal Estigarribia, reported 5,712 kilograms, which the ADN text also called the largest seizure in the Chaco. The report uses the final 5,554-kilogram figure and does not record the larger one.
No arrests or identified suspects were reported; the occupants of the Nissan Frontier fled, and the reporting says nothing of who hid the second load.
No charges, prosecutions or court outcome beyond the order to incinerate the drug were found.
La Nación places Gabino Mendoza in Alto Paraguay department while the ABC and Senad-based accounts describe the locality as a border site without naming a department; the two places lie on the road network serving Senad's Chaco base.
The 2,622 and 2,932 kilogram figures are the press accounts' breakdown of the final weighed total, not a published Senad bulletin, and the first article's publication date of 26 September differs from the 27 September date of the corroborating accounts.
The ABC Color pictures in the story's picture set carry no captions or credits, so what each of the second and third pictures shows is not established.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in ADN Digital: Senad officers found the first load on Sunday 23 September in Gabino Mendoza, a locality in Alto Paraguay department, together with a Nissan Frontier pickup.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in ADN Digital: The vehicles carrying the loads were delayed by the deep mud of the Chaco's roads, and ADN Digital said the weighing was held up by the bad condition of the tracks to the hiding places.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in ADN Digital: A judge ordered everything seized incinerated, ADN Digital reported.
SENAD and detector dogs seized 10 kg of marijuana hidden inside a welding machine in courier cargo at Silvio Pettirossi airport on 9 November 2026. The deteriorated load, sent from the United States with California-labelled packs, was placed under prosecutor María Irene Álvarez while investigations continue.
SENAD agents searched two rural properties at Maracana, Canindeyu, over the weekend and eliminated 1,668 kilos of marijuana, including 1,516 kilos of chopped cannabis and 172 kilos of pressed packs. Prosecutor Juan Benegas accompanied the operation, which investigators say targeted a stash feeding the Brazilian market.
Police in Curuguaty seized about 1,699.9 kg of marijuana, including 3 kg of skunk, from an abandoned white Toyota Hilux after a pursuit on the rural road between Araujo Cué and Acepar. No one was detained, and the load and vehicle were placed at the disposal of the competent authorities.
Customs officers at Silvio Pettirossi airport found 6 kg of suspected marijuana hidden in two packs of paediatric wet wipes in a courier shipment from Miami on 30 October 2026. A second check turned up 46.5 kg of suspected ketamine in printer boxes, taking the total to 52.5 kg of suspected drugs; SENAD took over both cases.
