Chile: eight held as OS7 uproots 23,125 cannabis plants in Monte Patria
Carabineros' OS7 Limarí unit and the Ovalle prosecutor's office detained eight people and uprooted more than 23,125 live cannabis plants in the Rapel sector of Monte Patria, Coquimbo. All eight were formalised and remanded in preventive detention, and a second operation on the Ovalle–Monte Patria road seized more than 40 kg of processed marijuana.
🇨🇱 Rapel sector, Monte Patria, Limarí province, Coquimbo Region · Chile
Eight people were detained in the raids in Ovalle and Monte Patria and all were
placed in preventive detention after formalisation.[1]Four of them were
detained at the plantation in the Rapel sector of Monte Patria, where they were
guarding and working the crop.[1]Ovalle’s acting regional prosecutor, Rodrigo
Gómez, said the four were two Haitian nationals, a Bolivian and a Chilean.[1]The Chilean was 40 years old, the Bolivian 26 and in Chile irregularly, and the
two Haitians were 41 and 36, the younger with an outstanding warrant for
assault.[2]
Officers seized more than 23,125 live cannabis plants still growing, which
Carabineros valued at 111,000 million pesos.[1]The uprooting across several
ravines inside Monte Patria took more than six hours, backed from the air by the
Sección Aérea and on the ground by GOPE and territorial police.[1]A second
operation on the road between Ovalle and Monte Patria, moving from Tulahuén
towards Talhuén, seized more than 40 kg of processed marijuana and four more
people were detained.[1]The Limarí press reported the two consecutive
operations together as the biggest cannabis seizure since the OS7 section was
created in the region, with two criminal organisations dismantled.[3]
It was the largest cannabis seizure for OS7 Limarí since the unit was set up in
the region in January 2024, and the third territorial operation this year after
two plantation finds in Los Vilos.[1]The cultivation investigation was given
a 60-day deadline and the trafficking case 40 days, with no court ruling on
guilt reported.[1]OS7 Limarí marked two years in operation this month, a
period in which it says it has seized more than six tonnes of drugs.[1]
Photos and video
Photo published with the Fiscalía de Chile release on the Monte Patria seizure; the page carries no caption or credit line.Photo details
El Observatodoelobservatodo.clESHistórico decomiso en Monte Patria: OS7 incauta más de 23 mil plantas de marihuana y desarticula dos bandas
Open questions the AI reported
The sources do not give the exact date of the raid; 20 January 2026 is the date of the Fiscalía release and of the detention control and formalisation, so the incident date here is that publication date.
Carabineros' statement that the plants were equivalent to more than 9 tonnes of drug and about 27 million doses is an equivalence estimate, not a weighed cannabis quantity, so it is not recorded as kilograms seized.
The 40 kg of processed marijuana belongs to a separate interception on the Ovalle–Monte Patria route, treated here as a second phase of the same operation; the eight detained are split four and four between the two phases.
El Ovallino and the Fiscalía headline say 'more than 20,000 plants' while the body of all three accounts gives 23,125, which is the figure used.
No court outcome beyond preventive detention and the 60-day and 40-day investigation deadlines is reported, and the sources are Spanish-language only.
The PDI's anti-narcotics brigade in Calama seized 186 kg of pressed marijuana at a stash point in the border area near San Pedro de Atacama, a find the local prosecutor said came from the internal border task force. The PDI valued the load at 900 million pesos and said it would be destroyed.
Carabineros' OS-7 unit in Cachapoal detained a 23-year-old man after seizing more than two kilos of marijuana from an interprovincial bus at kilometre 58 of Ruta 5 Sur in Mostazal. Drug-detecting dog Kelsy alerted officers to the luggage, and the man was placed at the disposal of the Ministerio Público on a trafficking allegation.
Carabineros detained a 50-year-old driver at a vehicle check on the northern access to the Coquimbo Region and seized 30.36 kg of processed marijuana in 30 packages. The Tenencia Carreteras Elqui found two packages in the car and OS7 officers found another 28 a short distance from the check point.
Carabineros in Chile's Atacama region detained five Chilean adults after officers found 140 marijuana packages in two vehicles at a service station on Route 5 Norte in Chañaral, and seized 156 kg 692 g of marijuana. Prosecutors formalised trafficking charges against the five and a Chañaral court placed them all in preventive detention; Carabineros valued the haul at about 1.57 billion pesos.
