Bolivia’s anti-drug forces destroyed 20 marijuana nurseries near the community of Lagunillas, in Rafael Bustillos province, northern Potosí department, the deputy ministry for controlled substances (Viceministerio de Sustancias Controladas) reported.[1] The operation was carried out in the early hours of Monday 19 January 2026.[1] Officers reached the site along a bridle path and found sophisticated irrigation machinery in the nurseries.[1]

Each nursery covered about 700 square metres, a total of roughly 1.4 hectares, with marijuana plants up to three metres tall at four plants per square metre.[1] The deputy ministry calculated each nursery’s potential at 11.9 tonnes, a total of 238 tonnes of marijuana destroyed, of which 71.4 tonnes were the net weight in its natural state before processing for trafficking.[1] The deputy ministry put the economic damage to drug trafficking at 10.7 million dollars.[1]

The whole plantation was incinerated, with the Public Prosecutor’s Office present, and during the burning local residents set off dynamite near the intervention area.[1] The deputy ministry said more than 60 active nurseries, many with advanced irrigation and high yields, had already been recorded in the same region in 2025, which it said suggested a consolidated criminal organisation rooted in national drug-trafficking circuits.[1]