Paraguay destroys 5.5 tonnes of marijuana in Maracaná reserve
SENAD agents with prosecutor Meiji Udagawa entered the Maracaná Nature Reserve in Canindeyú on 21 January 2021 and dismantled a cultivation and processing centre with two campsites, destroying a weighed total of 5,500 kilograms of marijuana. The prosecutor ordered the evidence incinerated, and SENAD put the traffickers' lost income at about US$165,000.
On 21 January 2021, agents of Paraguay’s anti-drug agency SENAD, led by prosecutor Meiji Udagawa with specialists from the Salto del Guairá regional office, entered the Maracaná Nature Reserve in the department of Canindeyú and located a marijuana cultivation and processing centre.[1][2]Inside the protected forest they found two campsites used to store the production equipment, including presses, guillotines and sieves.[1][2]
Destroyed and burned
The weighed total reached 5,500 kilograms of marijuana: about 5,000 kilograms chopped and 500 kilograms pressed.[1][2]The prosecutor ordered the evidence incinerated, and SENAD estimated the traffickers’ lost income at about US$165,000.[1][2]Trafficking groups set up production and storage bases in protected forest areas, which SENAD says it has targeted with intensified reserve operations since late 2020.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
SENAD agents raided a rural property in Colonia Nueva Yaú, Capitán Bado, destroying 9 hectares of marijuana, 450 kg of chopped marijuana and five camps. Prosecutor Sarita Bonzi ordered everything incinerated on site while investigations continue to identify those responsible.
A joint task force destroyed three hectares of marijuana and 9,300 kilograms of the drug in the San Lorenzo community of San Pedro del Paraná, Itapúa, on 31 October 2026. Prosecutors are investigating a criminal organisation they say was buying weapons with trafficking proceeds.
SENAD’s Bella Vista Norte unit, using drones to map plots in the Timburi forest reserve, eradicated four hectares of illegal marijuana and destroyed 660 kg in 33 bales at a staging area; the agency estimated about twelve tonnes kept from the market under prosecutor Rossana Coronel’s supervision.
On 29 October 2026 Paraguay's SENAD reported eradicating four hectares of cannabis — about 12 tonnes — and destroying 1,600 kg of drying marijuana at the Indigenous colony Takua Ju in Yby Pytã, Canindeyú. No one was found at the site.
