Paraguay recaptures 'marijuana king' in Encarnación raid
Paraguayan police, prosecutors and SENAD recaptured fugitive trafficker Damián Delvalle Sanabria at a house in Encarnación on 6 September 2013. No drugs or weapons were found, and he was transferred to SENAD's base in Asunción while facing prior trafficking cases and an Argentine extradition request.
🇵🇾 Barrio Buena Vista, Encarnación · Paraguay
Arrested
1
Agencies
Secretaría Nacional Antidrogas (SENAD), Policía Nacional +1
Damián Delvalle Sanabria, known as the ‘rey de la marihuana,’ was captured on
the afternoon of Friday 6 September 2013 in a joint operation by Paraguay’s
National Police, prosecutors and SENAD.[1]The raid targeted a house in the
Buena Vista neighbourhood of Encarnación owned by his partner Mariela Rivarola,
a former adviser to the Yacyretá binational hydroelectric entity.[1]SENAD
investigators determined that the 51-year-old had been residing in the luxury
mansion in Encarnación.[2]No weapons or drugs were found in the residence.[2]Several other people were in the house, including two men with
drug-trafficking histories, but they were not detained and their identities were
not released.[2]He was then transferred to SENAD’s operations base in
Asunción.[2]
SENAD had first detained him in November 2010 with more than two tonnes of
marijuana, and he escaped in May 2011 after allegedly paying US$150,000 for a
falsified release order.[3]Investigators said he directed a criminal group
moving marijuana to neighbouring countries and linked his group to 800 kilos
recently seized on the Argentina-Paraguay border.[3]Argentina sought his
extradition, including in connection with the 2003 kidnapping of the son of a
former Argentine minister.[3]
Photos and video
Damián Delvalle Sanabria being led away by a SENAD official after his capture in Encarnación. Photo: InSight Crime.Photo details
The incident date is given as Friday 6 September 2013 from ABC Color's same-day report; the InSight Crime account published 10 September 2013 gives only 'Friday'.
Sources vary the fugitive's name order between Delvalle Sanabria and Sanabria Delvalle.
The 2010 seizure behind the original arrest is described as more than two tonnes, and as 14 drums holding more than 2,000 kg of pressed marijuana; the exact weight is not reconciled.
No drugs or weapons were reported seized in the 2013 Encarnación raid, so no cannabis quantity is recorded for this event.
No new charges, plea or court outcome for the recaptured fugitive were reported in these sources.
The text gives a weight ("800 kilos") but the figures have no kg_seized; check whether it belongs there.
A 27-year-old Brazilian driver was apprehended after overturning his Kia Picanto while fleeing a police check on a rural road toward Vista Alegre in Pedro Juan Caballero. Police seized about seven bags of pressed and loose marijuana plus gas cylinders said to be for making premium ICE-type marijuana.
A 26-year-old woman was detained at the Centro de Prevenidos de Ciudad del Este after a prison officer found 101.2 grams of marijuana wrapped in polythene among her underwear as she tried to enter to visit an inmate. The anti-drug prosecutor ordered her held at the Comisaría 25a de Mujeres, and a narcotest on the package was positive for marijuana.
Agents of Paraguay's SENAD stopped a vehicle in the Caacupemí neighbourhood of Hernandarias and found 46 packets of "GTA FEM" cannabis — a selected variety with up to 30% THC — hidden in a secret compartment. A father and his son were detained; the agency said the load was headed for Brazil and valued it at about US$400,000.
Paraguayan authorities arrested nine alleged members of a marijuana network in Salto del Guairá on 1 August 2018, including an anti-drug prosecutor and a former soldier accused of protecting it. The operation seized almost 16 tonnes of marijuana worth about US$8 million, plus bribe ledgers, vehicles, boats and weapons.
