Bolivian trucker held after 110 kg marijuana found in Chilean soy load
Customs officers at Chile's Chungará border post found 48 packages holding 110.1 kg of marijuana hidden among bulk soybeans in a Bolivian truck bound for Colombia, and arrested the driver. The Arica prosecutor's office charged him with drug trafficking and a court ordered him held in preventive detention.
🇨🇱 Chungará border crossing, Arica y Parinacota region · Chile
Customs officers at Chile’s Chungará border crossing, on the frontier with
Bolivia, stopped a truck carrying bulk soybeans in transit to Colombia and
arrested its driver, a Bolivian identified by the initials G.O.R.[1]The stop
came on the eve of Christmas Eve.[2]Inspectors noticed an anomaly in the
tarpaulin covering the load, which led them to 48 packages of different sizes
and shapes hidden among the soy.[1]Infobae reported the marijuana seizure
five days after authorities announced a separate haul of almost 700 kg of
cocaine soaked into export timber sent from Bolivia to Spain.[3]
A field test established that the packages held 110 kilos100 grams of
marijuana.[1]The drug, the driver and all the evidence were handed to
Carabineros’ OS7 anti-drug unit in Arica.[1]Radio Agricultura reported that
the load had been concealed strategically among the bulk soy, which at first
made it hard to detect.[4]The acting director of the Arica customs office,
César Zamora, said the seizure showed the inspectors’ experience in spotting
details of a cargo that had been tampered with.[1]
The Arica y Parinacota prosecutor’s office charged the Bolivian driver and
obtained an order holding him in preventive detention while the investigation
continues.[4]The charging hearing was held on 26 December, the day the
customs service and La Tercera announced the case.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
La Terceralatercera.comESAduana incauta 110 kilos de marihuana ocultos en cargamento de soya en paso fronterizo de Arica: camionero quedó en prisión preventiva
Infobaeinfobae.comESEn menos de una semana decomisan en Chile droga de Bolivia en madera y soja de exportación
The customs service says the stop happened on the afternoon of the previous Tuesday and La Tercera on the eve of Christmas Eve, which place it on 23 December 2025; no source gives an exact date stamp.
The customs service says 48 packages were found but does not state whether all of them held marijuana.
No street value for the marijuana was published.
No sentence or further court outcome was reported; the case was still under investigation when the seizure was announced.
Infobae's headline figure of 'more than 100 kilos' is rounded; the customs figure of 110 kilos 100 grams is used.
The Infobae page's picture covers the whole two-seizure article rather than this truck, and Radio Agricultura's photo is a generic agency reference image, so neither is listed as media of this seizure.
The separate December 2025 Operation Mercurius cocaine seizure in timber, reported in the same Infobae article, is a different event and is not covered here.
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.
