Argentina’s federal police detained five people in three anti-drug procedures in San Luis, Buenos Aires and Neuquén provinces, announced on 16 February 2025, in which doses of cocaine and marijuana, firearms and ammunition were seized.[1] The release’s opening summary instead says three people were detained and mentions only San Luis and Buenos Aires province, before its three sections describe five detainees including two in Neuquén.[1] At Mercedes, San Luis, the Villa Mercedes federal operational unit closed a drug sales point and detained the man running it, who was already serving house arrest in another case under Argentina’s narcotics law, Law 23.737.[1] Villa Mercedes federal judge Juan Carlos Nacul ordered the search of the house, where officers seized 80 grams of high-purity cocaine hydrochloride, two phones, a pickup, a car, a .22 revolver with 12 cartridges and 336,000 pesos in low-denomination notes.[1] No cannabis was listed in the Mercedes seizure, which involved cocaine, a weapon and cash.[1]

A second inquiry by the federal police’s western metropolitan operations division led to five searches of homes accused of storing and distributing drugs in the Moreno district, with lookouts posted nearby to protect the sales.[1] Guarantee Court No 1 of the Moreno–General Rodríguez judicial department ordered the five searches, in which officers detained the man and woman said to lead the organisation.[1] The Moreno searches produced 260 grams of marijuana and three cannabis sativa plants alongside nearly 3 kilos of high-purity cocaine hydrochloride, a car and eight phones.[1]

At a roadside check on Provincial Route 65 near Villa Traful, Neuquén, officers stopped a car and the sniffer dog Ara marked a bag inside the passenger compartment.[1] The Zapala federal prosecutor’s office, under Juan Manuel García Barrese, ordered the case opened before witnesses, revealing about 600 grams of pressed marijuana split into five nylon wrappings, a second bag with 30 grams of cocaine and a digital precision scale.[1] The magistrate ordered the drug, the phones and the car seized, notified the two Argentine occupants, a man and a woman, and ordered the investigation to continue under the national drug law.[1]