Seven Colombians held leaving Iquique with 115 kg of cannabis
The PDI's Iquique anti-narcotics brigade, customs officers and the Tarapacá prosecutor's office arrested seven Colombian nationals near the Chucumata toll station with 115 kg 180 g of cannabis carried alongside cocaine in two vehicles bound for the Metropolitan Region. The adults were remanded and a minor interned after they were charged on 6 November 2026.
🇨🇱 Chucumata toll station, Iquique, Tarapacá region · Chile
Detectives of the PDI’s Iquique anti-narcotics brigade, working with Chile’s
national customs service and the Tarapacá regional prosecutor’s office, arrested
seven Colombian nationals, six men and one woman, near the Chucumata toll
station outside Iquique.[1]The seven were stopped in two vehicles on their
way out of the region towards the Metropolitan Region.[1]
The prosecutor’s office said the two vehicles carried 115 kg180 g of cannabis,
34 kg440 g of coca base and more than 14.5 kg of cocaine hydrochloride, 164 kg160 g of drugs in all.[2]Officers also seized the two vehicles used for the
journey and seven mobile phones.[3]One of the detainees already had an arrest
warrant for drug trafficking issued by the Antofagasta guarantee court, and
three others had records for other offences.[3]
The investigation grew out of information left over from earlier cases, Tarapacá
regional prosecutor Virginia Aravena said, and she considered it very likely the
drug came from foreign producers.[1]Aravena said the group had travelled to
Alto Hospicio, where PDI officers watched them before they were found with the
drugs as they tried to take them out of the region.[1]
The seven were charged at a hearing on Friday 6 November 2026 with illicit drug
trafficking; the adults were remanded in preventive custody and a minor was held
in provisional internment, with a 120-day investigation period.[1]
The customs service’s acting regional director, Narciso Donoso, put the number
of people detained at eight.[1]
Radio Paulina reported that the seven were arrested in flagrante for drug
trafficking and that officers seized seven mobile phones as well as the two
vehicles.[4]
Photos and video
Photo published with the report on the Chucumata operation, credited to the Tarapacá regional prosecutor's office (Fiscalía Tarapacá); it carries no caption describing the scene.Photo details
SoyChilesoychile.clESOperativo culminó con siete sujetos detenidos: salían de Iquique con 164 kilos de droga
Info Tarapacáinfotarapaca.clES7 colombianos detenidos y más de 160 kilos de droga deja un operativo policial realizado en las cercanías del peaje Chucumata
BioBioChilebiobiochile.clESDetienen a 7 colombianos que trasladaban más de 160 kilos de droga en cercanías de peaje en Iquique
Radio Paulinaradiopaulina.clESOperativo policial realizado en sector de peaje Chucumata deja a siete colombianos detenidos y más de 160 kilos de droga incautada
Open questions the AI reported
No source gives the date of the vehicle stop or the arrests; 5 November 2026 is used because the seven were formalised "this Friday" on 6 November, the day of publication.
The customs service's acting regional director is quoted counting eight people detained, while the prosecutor, the PDI statement and every other account count seven.
The age of the minor held in provisional internment was not published, and no source says whether the person with the outstanding Antofagasta warrant is among the three reported as having records.
No street value estimate was published for the cannabis, and the sources do not say where in Tarapacá the vehicles were loaded or where the cannabis was produced; the prosecutor only said the drugs were likely to come from foreign producers.
The local outlet El Reportero de Iquique links the case to an earlier detention of three people, Colombian and Chilean, whose information was used to plan this operation, and places the stop near the airport; no other account confirms that link, so it is left out of the text.
PDI detectives arrested three men and a woman aged 28 to 57 in La Legua, San Joaquín, after raiding four homes used as drug sales points. Officers seized cocaine base, cocaine hydrochloride and cannabis along with cash, phones, two firearms and a car.
Detectives detained six Chileans accused of running a family drug-trafficking group in La Pincoya, Huechuraba. Officers seized almost 4 kg of mixed drugs including cannabis, valued at over 19 million pesos, but reported no separate cannabis weight.
Carabineros of the Hijuelas highway unit detained a woman on suspicion of drug trafficking after finding ten packages of pressed marijuana in the luggage of an interprovincial bus on Ruta 5 Norte at Nogales. Officers seized 11 kilos and 875 grams of pressed marijuana and placed the woman at the disposal of the Ministerio Público.
A taxi colectivo driver who struck a Carabinero directing traffic in central Osorno on 7 November was found positive for marijuana and cocaine in drug tests and was detained. The first corporal suffered a serious fracture of his right wrist, and the duty prosecutor ordered the driver to be brought to a detention review.
