FELCN burns 36 cannabis greenhouses near Machacamarca
Prosecutors and FELCN burned 36 irrigated greenhouses of cannabis near Laguna Lagunillas, in Machacamarca, Potosí, on the night of 11 March. The Oruro prosecutor put the plants at about 12,600 kilograms.
🇧🇴 Near Laguna Lagunillas, Machacamarca, Rafael Bustillo, Potosí · Bolivia
On the night of 11 March 2026, continuing into the early morning of the 12th,
prosecutors and FELCN, Bolivia’s special anti-drug force, went about a
kilometre and a half into the community of Machacamarca, near Laguna
Lagunillas, in Rafael Bustillo province, Potosí.[1]They found and burned
36 greenhouses of cannabis, all of them irrigated.[1][2]
Aldo Morales Alconini, the departmental prosecutor in Oruro, said the plants
in their natural state came to about 12 tonnes and 6,000 kilograms, 12,600
kilograms.[1]Speaking later, he described more than 12 tonnes of plants
two and a half to three metres tall and ready to cut.[2]The greenhouses
were 12 large ones of 50 by 20 metres, 15 medium ones of 30 by 15 metres, and
9 small ones of 20 by 10 metres.[1][2]The irrigation systems were burned
with the plants.[1]
Morales said the case is being investigated as trafficking in controlled
substances in larger volumes.[1]On 16 March he said, on Bolivia TV, that
people from the community had thrown sticks of dynamite at the officers at
the end of the operation.[2]He also said the landowners of the plots had
been identified.[2]
Photos and video
Fire burning among cannabis plants inside a greenhouse at night (El Mundo).Photo details
No one was reported arrested. On 12 March the prosecutor said the owners were still being identified. On 16 March he said the landowners had been identified.
Visión 360 quotes him saying people threw sticks of dynamite at the officers. The accounts do not say whether anyone was hurt.
He also said police intelligence had found more greenhouses farther away. Those were not part of this operation.
Vision 360 published additional greenhouse photos of the same Machacamarca find without a separate direct media_url entry here.
Bolivia's anti-drug force FELCN found dried marijuana and standing cannabis plants at La Angostura, in El Torno, Santa Cruz, and burned more than 90 tonnes. The published accounts name no arrests and give no separate date for the operation.
On 3 March 2026 Bolivia's FELCN eradicated about 25 tonnes of raw marijuana on 3.75 hectares at Mojón K'asa near Toro Toro, burned an artisan processing lab with washing machines and tanks, and found no one to arrest after traffickers fled.
Bolivian anti-drug forces destroyed 20 marijuana nurseries in Lagunillas, in Rafael Bustillos province, northern Potosí, in an operation before dawn on 19 January 2026. The deputy ministry for controlled substances valued the crop destroyed at 10.7 million dollars and reported that local residents set off dynamite during the burning.
Bolivia's FELCN found and incinerated 63 marijuana nurseries holding an estimated 14.5 tonnes in the Lagunillas highlands near Llallagua, Potosí, in what the government minister called a historic first planned entry into the area.
