Police seize 7.5 tons of marijuana hidden in empanada truck in Manizales
Police on the Remolinos-Puente Indial road in Manizales seized 7.5 tons of marijuana hidden in a tractor-trailer among boxes of refrigerated empanadas and arrested two men. Investigators linked the load, valued at 2.5 billion pesos, to the Jaime Martinez Front of the FARC dissidents.
Units of the Transit and Transportation Directorate’s Criminal Investigation
Section, with Caldas transit units, seized7.5 tons of marijuana on the
Remolinos-Puente Indial road in the municipality of Manizales.[1]Two people
were arrested during the operation for drug trafficking, manufacturing or
possession.[1]
The marijuana was transported in a public-service tractor-trailer concealed
among boxes of refrigerated empanadas.[1]Officers found 608 hidden packages
of marijuana inside the inspected vehicle.[2]The two arrested men were aged
38 and 42, and the vehicle and the seized drug were placed under the custody of
the Manizales sectional prosecutor’s office.[2]
The truck was travelling the Yumbo-Barranquilla route, but investigators
established that the shipment’s true destination was Medellin.[1]Investigators attributed the load to the Jaime Martinez Front of the Central
General Staff, a FARC dissident group under alias Mordisco.[1]Police
estimated the shipment’s value at 2.5 billion pesos and said the seizure
prevented about 12 million doses from reaching the illegal market.[1]
The Transit and Transportation Directorate said it had seized a total of 40,242
kilos of marijuana on the country’s roads so far in 2025.[1]
Photos and video
Seized marijuana packages hidden among empanada boxes near Manizales, in the police handout photo. Photo: @Policia_Caldas / XPhoto details
Infobaeinfobae.comESIncautan 7,5 toneladas de marihuana que pertenecería a ‘Iván Mordisco’: estaban camufladas en cajas de empanadas
Open questions the AI reported
27 May 2025 is the police page's date and is used as the incident date; Infobae published its account on the night of 26 May 2025, so the roadside operation may have occurred on 26 May.
The police account says the seizure prevented about 12 million doses, while Infobae says more than 15 million doses; the report uses the police figure.
The truck's declared route was Yumbo-Barranquilla but police say its true destination was Medellin; Infobae reverses this, naming Barranquilla as the final destination with later findings pointing to Medellin.
The two arrested men were reported only as aged 38 and 42; no names or later court outcome were published.
The value of 2.5 billion pesos is the authorities' own estimate for the shipment.
The page images on the submitted police page are unrelated latest-news thumbnails, so no event photo is taken from that page.
Army troops seized 1,700 kilograms of pressed marijuana from a van in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca, capturing one person after a pursuit from a military checkpoint. The Third Division attributed the load to the FARC dissidents' Dagoberto Ramos structure and valued the loss to it at more than 425 million pesos.
Colombian army, navy and police units seized about 2,700 kilograms of suspected marijuana from a bongo remolcador river boat at the Hong Kong wharf in Puerto Asís, Putumayo. Authorities linked the load to the Segunda Marquetalia dissidence's Comandos de Frontera, without naming suspects or giving a value.
Colombian police stopped a vehicle in the urban area of Chinchiná, Caldas, carrying 520 kilograms of marijuana and arrested the person caught in the act, immobilising a car with altered identification systems. President Abelardo de la Espriella announced the haul as part of two operations, the other being 358 kilograms of cocaine found in generators at the port of Cartagena.
Colombian National Police investigators seized 7,452 grams of marijuana in the Los Quindos neighbourhood of Armenia, Quindío, along with 98 boxes of clonazepam. Police said the marijuana was meant for sale in minimum doses at sales points around the city and handed the drugs to the local prosecutor's office; no arrests were reported.
