On 26 May 2025, police from Canelones and Montevideo carried out three simultaneous raids in the Conciliación neighbourhood of Montevideo under Operation Valldemosa, detaining six men and dismantling a drug-trafficking group that operated between both departments.[1] Following a court hearing, three of the detainees were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years and ten months to three years and eight months for supplying narcotics and weapons offences.[2]

An anti-drug unit investigation had identified a leader who directed the distribution of illicit substances and used others to move them between Montevideo and Canelones, leading the 1st Shift Prosecutor’s Office of Las Piedras to obtain search warrants for three properties in Montevideo’s 19th Police Precinct that served as the group’s centre of operations.[2]

In the first raid at a house on María Orticochea street, officers detained a 39-year-old man identified as P.S.M.O. and a 49-year-old man identified as O.R.R., and seized doses of marijuana and cocaine base paste, more than half a kilogram of a yellowish-white substance, an automatic pistol, a revolver, ammunition, scales, police and security clothing, phones, and US dollars and Uruguayan pesos.[2] At a second house on the same street, police detained three men aged 41 (N.B.R.), 37 (F.B.R.) and 67, discovered two marijuana processing laboratories, and seized cannabis plants, growing equipment, packages of high-quality marijuana, surveillance cameras, phones, cash and a pickup truck.[2] In the third raid, officers detained a 37-year-old man identified as M.E.S. and confiscated a car, cash, cocaine, cocaine base paste and mobile phones.[2]

The court formalised the investigation, sentenced N.B.R. to three years and eight months in prison and M.E.S. to two years and ten months for supplying narcotics, sentenced P.S.M.O. to three years in prison for supplying narcotics and illegal weapons trafficking and possession, ordered the release of F.B.R. and O.R.R., and ordered the forfeiture of the seized goods.[2]