Eight held in Puente Alto as OS7 seizes 1.26 tonnes of Bolivian marijuana
Two Carabineros OS7 operations ending in Puente Alto on the eve of the Fiestas Patrias holidays seized 1,258 kg of Bolivian marijuana brought in through Colchane in Tarapacá and led to eight arrests, seven of them Colombians. Prosecutors said the sacks were labelled for different recipient groups and that the investigation into the suppliers and buyers continues.
🇨🇱 Puente Alto, Santiago Metropolitan Region · Chile
Carabineros’ OS7 anti-drug unit and prosecutors announced that two operations
ending in Puente Alto, a commune on Santiago’s southern edge, seized more than a
tonne of Bolivian marijuana and detained eight men.[1]The eight detainees
were seven Colombians and one Chilean; Emol reported that the Colombians were in
the country irregularly and that the Chilean was 34 and had a criminal record.[2]
In all, officers seized 1,258.298 kilos of marijuana, 1.690 kg of cocaine
hydrochloride, 1.235 kg of ketamine and 79 MDMA tablets, which the authorities
valued at 11,372 million pesos.[2]Officers also took two vehicles, a 9 mm
Glock pistol, 28 rounds of ammunition and close to 4 million pesos in cash.[3]
The larger operation began with OS7 officers in Iquique and the Tarapacá local
prosecutor’s office, who traced a consignment brought into Chile through
unauthorised crossings at Colchane in the Tarapacá region and followed it in a
controlled delivery to a stash property in Puente Alto.[4]That operation,
carried out under a search warrant, caught the group in the act and produced
1,124 kilos of marijuana found in 49 sacks.[4]A second operation, run with
the Metropolitan South prosecutor’s office, caught another transnational group
as it received a load from the north of the country in the same commune and
seized 134 kilos of marijuana there.[3]
Tarapacá regional prosecutor Virginia Aravena said the packages carried two
kinds of label, one with a cartoon character, which the press called
cariñositos, and one with a money-transfer logo, which investigators believed
marked the group each consignment was meant for.[1]Prosecutors said the
surveillance began on 12 September and that the investigation continues into who
supplied and received the loads, while a controlled delivery ended in the
Metropolitan Region.[2]For the Tarapacá case prosecutors sought to extend the
detention of three foreign nationals and request preventive custody, while the
five held in the Metropolitan South case were due before Santiago’s 12th
Guarantee Court, charged under the Drugs Act and the Arms Act.[1]Carabineros
director general Marcelo Araya said the operations broke up two gangs that sold
drugs in crowded public places and that the force had seized about 68 tonnes of
drugs so far in 2026.[4]
Photos and video
Marijuana packages seized by Carabineros' OS7 in Puente Alto, some bearing the cartoon-character and money-transfer labels prosecutors described. Photo: CarabinerosPhoto details
The accounts were published on 17 September with no separate date for the arrests; Emol says the surveillance began on 12 September.
The authorities' 11,372 million peso valuation covers all the drugs seized, including the cocaine, ketamine and MDMA, so it cannot be attributed to the marijuana alone.
Sources differ on the Tarapacá suspects: Corresponsal Iquique says three Colombians were detained and remanded by the Pozo Almonte guarantee court, while BioBioChile's seven Colombians and one Chilean is a total for both operations.
Only T13 reports the split between the 1,124 kg controlled-delivery load and the 134 kg seized in the parallel Puente Alto operation.
No charging decisions, preventive-custody rulings or sentencing outcomes for either group had been reported when the accounts were published.
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.
