Customs officers seized 30 grams of marijuana at the Integrated Control Area of the General Artigas international bridge in Paysandú.[1] Officers carried out the check on the morning of Friday 28 December jointly with sanitary-barrier staff, stopping an Argentine-registered car carrying a Uruguayan man, an Argentine man and the first man’s son.[1] The drug and the vehicle were seized, while the two men and the adolescent were placed at the disposal of Paysandú’s second-turn judge, Karen Ramos.[1] The judge ordered that the Narcotics Brigade be informed of the situation.[1]

The driver was also carrying medicinal herbs, seasonings, seeds and unpackaged rice, alongside a herb that looked and smelled like Cannabis sativa and was confirmed as cannabis by testing.[1] The driver’s 15-year-old son, who admitted being a consumer, was carrying a grinder containing one gram of dried, chopped cannabis ready for consumption, plus cigarette rolling papers.[1]

The driver, a 38-year-old Uruguayan living in Córdoba, said he was travelling to Treinta y Tres to visit his mother and other relatives.[1] He said the marijuana was for his personal consumption and also to prepare infusions to treat an illness affecting his mother.[1]