Tucumán provincial police detained three men who live in Catamarca province carrying 17.5 kilos of marijuana hidden inside a vehicle at the Colalao del Valle border post.[1][2][3] The check took place on Thursday at a control post on the border trace under Operativo Lapacho, a standing provincial operation, and officers stopped a Ford EcoSport carrying the three suspects.[1][2][3]

After asking for the vehicle’s documents and searching it before witnesses, officers found two black travel bags holding 16 rectangular packages wrapped in yellow tape.[1][2][3] Police said the find kept the load out of local distribution networks.[1]

The Federal Court No. 2 of Tucumán was notified and ordered chemists of the Didrop, the provincial drug police directorate for the west of the province, to run field confirmation tests.[1] The court ordered the three men held incommunicado and the preventive seizure of the EcoSport and of four mobile phones found in the cabin.[1][2][3] The case was filed for alleged infringement of National Narcotics Law No. 23,737, Argentina’s drug law, while investigators analyse the phone lines to establish where the load came from and where it was going.[1][2][3]

The Federal Court No. 2 of Tucumán ordered the Didrop, the provincial drug police directorate for the west of the province, to take part in the case after the find.[3]