Chile's police pull up 1,778 cannabis plants in three Maule communes
Drug brigades of the Chilean investigative police, with an air unit, seized 1,778 cannabis plants at cultivation sites in San Clemente, Retiro and Longaví in the Maule region, announced on 11 March 2026 under Plan Cannabis 2026, along with 4.35 kg of bulk marijuana. No arrests were reported.
🇨🇱 San Clemente, Retiro and Longaví, Maule region · Chile
Detectives of the anti-drug brigades (Brianco) of Talca and Linares, with the air police brigade of
Chile’s investigative police (PDI), seized 1,778 cannabis plants at cultivation sites in the Maule
region, results the PDI announced on 11 March 2026 under Plan Cannabis 2026.[1][2]
In San Clemente the Talca brigade found three plots in rural and precordilleran sectors holding
1,070 plants between 80 centimetres and 2.5 metres tall, watered and still growing.[1][2]In Retiro
the Linares brigade found two sites with 243 plants, between 1.5 and 3.5 metres tall, and a barrel
holding 4,346 grams of bulk marijuana, and in Longaví a further 465 plants between 1.8 and three
metres.[1][2]
The plantations lay in ravines and thickly vegetated land chosen to escape detection, and their
keepers had installed drip irrigation, pools to store water and screens of vegetation around the
plots to protect the growth cycle until harvest.[1][2]
The prosecutor’s office ordered that everything seized be sent to the Maule health service for
analysis and destruction.[1][2]No arrest was reported in either account of the operation.[1][2]
Photos and video
Uprooted cannabis plants tagged as PDI evidence after the Maule cultivation seizures (Diario El Centro / PDI).Photo details
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.
Chile's PDI and prosecutors closed the January-April Plan Cannabis 2021 season with more than 15.5 tonnes of processed cannabis and 293,000 plants seized, valued at 225,000 million pesos. The investigation-led operation detained 42 people, up from 4 a year earlier, and also took firearms and vehicles.
