A police pursuit in eastern Uruguay ended with the capture of four Brazilian citizens, the seizure of several vehicles and the confiscation of 351 kilograms of hashish.[1]

The drug was found inside a pickup truck whose occupant tried to flee in the seaside resort of La Paloma, Rocha department.[1] Police mounted the operation after receiving information from different sources about three vehicles carrying Brazilians driving suspiciously through the resort of San Antonio, a few kilometres east of La Paloma.[1] Inside the pickup truck officers found 309 packages of hashish, a drug derived from cannabis.[1]

A second vehicle was caught in La Paloma and a third at the checkpoint at the entrance to the Chuy customs post, the town on the border between Uruguay and Brazil.[1] The news programme Telenoche put the value of the drug at around 600,000 dollars.[1]

Three Brazilian citizens were sentenced to five years in prison for the crime of organising activities linked to drug trafficking, after an operation led by the Rocha police headquarters and the General Directorate for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking.[2] The investigation began in the seaside resort of San Antonio, where Rocha officers detained several Brazilian citizens in possession of 350 kilograms of marijuana.[2] The case led to a second operation in Montevideo, at a house at the intersection of Lauro Müller and Eduardo Acevedo in the Palermo neighbourhood.[2] No one was in the house when officers entered, but the search found 518 transparent nylon packages of plant material compatible with hashish weighing 132 kilograms and 310 grams.[2] Officers also seized six vacuum-packing machines, tapes, cutting tools, bags and other equipment used to package drugs.[2] Between the two procedures, 482 kilograms of drugs were seized in total.[2] The First Turn Organized Crime Court imposed five-year prison sentences on the three Brazilian defendants, found responsible for belonging to a criminal organisation dedicated to international drug trafficking.[2]