Officers from Bolivia’s Rural Mobile Patrol Unit (UMOPAR) intercepted a truck at the Locotal vehicular checkpoint in the Cochabamba tropics on the morning of 17 April 2026.[1] At around 07:30, police stopped the vehicle carrying construction bricks in its cargo bed and questioned the 37-year-old driver, identified as Hernán M. G.[1] Officers conducted an exhaustive search of the vehicle after the driver appeared nervous and gave contradictory answers during the police interview.[1]
During the inspection, officers uncovered a concealment compartment in the front, centre and rear sections of the truck bed, where wooden boards hidden beneath the bricks covered blue jute sacks.[1] Inside the sacks, police found packages of a greenish plant material that field-tested positive for marijuana.[1] The shipment comprised 445 packages distributed across 16 jute bags, with a total weight of 483.6 kilograms in wet state.[1]
Anti-narcotics agents arrested the driver on the spot and confiscated the truck along with two mobile phones.[1] A controlled substances prosecutor ordered the driver, the confiscated drugs and the vehicle transferred to UMOPAR headquarters in the Chapare region for further investigation.[1] On 21 April 2026, FELCN national director Frans William Cabrera confirmed the Locotal seizure of 483 kilograms of marijuana among six recent operations carried out in the Cochabamba tropics.[2] Authorities announced that the six operations together netted 1,170 kilograms of controlled substances and inflicted an estimated 2.6 million dollars in economic damage on trafficking networks.[2]
