Highway police in Córdoba stopped a car on Ruta Nacional 158 near the entrance to San Francisco, a city in Córdoba province, and found sealed packages of pressed plant material inside.[1] The smell led the officers to call in Gendarmería Nacional, Argentina’s federal gendarmerie, which ran the procedure with the Córdoba provincial police.[2] A second car, loaded with similar packages, was found; the gendarmes counted 307 bricks of pressed plant material in the first vehicle and 279 rectangular packages in the second.[2]

Forensic tests by the Villa María highway squadron proved positive for marijuana, and the total seized was 500 kilos 910 grams.[2] La Voz del Interior put the haul at 501 kilograms, carried in two white Chevrolet cars, a Corsa and an Onix, and said the drivers were heading to Córdoba Capital to stock drug sales points known locally as quioscos.[1] The Federal Court of San Francisco ordered that the two adults be held and that the minor be taken to an institution in Córdoba city.[2] La Voz reported three people detained: the Corsa’s 27-year-old driver from Alta Gracia, Córdoba, and a 23-year-old and a 16-year-old from the Yapeyú neighbourhood of Santa Fe city.[1] The Corsa had been reported stolen to the justice system of Rosario, and the vehicles were seized along with the drug.[1]

The federal magistrate issued four search warrants for addresses in Córdoba and Santa Fe cities, which gendarmerie units carried out.[2] The searches turned up mobile phones and a shotgun.[2] La Gaceta published the gendarmerie’s statement that more than 500 kilograms of marijuana were seized in San Francisco with three people detained.[3]