A driver abandoned his car with one door open and fled on a dirt road in San Javier, Misiones, when Argentine Naval Prefecture officers began a controlled pursuit.[1] Investigators were still trying to identify and find him.[2] In the car and in the vegetation around it, officers found 17 packages holding 424 bricks of marijuana weighing more than 332 kilograms.[3] The authorities valued the load at more than 1.297 billion pesos.[1]

Prefectura Naval Argentina, the country’s coast guard, said the operation began with intelligence from its criminal investigation staff about a possible drug transfer in the area.[2] A patrol watching the Uruguay River at kilometre 993.6, by the Puerto Natural Once Vueltas, spotted a car on a dirt road and followed it.[1] A sniffer dog named Andy and his handler found one more package hidden among the vegetation, and forensic staff from the Misiones police examined the load.[1]

The case is with the federal prosecutor’s office and federal court in Oberá.[3] The site is close to Argentina’s border with Brazil.[2] The authorities had not said whether the load had recently entered from Brazil or was being moved elsewhere in the country.[2] No arrests were reported in connection with the seizure.[2]