Ex-judge returned to prison after 79 kg cannabis case
Former judge Herbert Zeballos was arrested again in Santa Cruz on 31 October 2026 and returned to Palmasola after a court revoked his house arrest for an alleged violation. The prosecution stems from a January cannabis seizure at a warehouse linked to him, where FELCN reported finding 79 kg of marijuana.
On 31 October, former judge Herbert Zeballos was arrested again in Santa Cruz at
a clinic over an alleged breach of house arrest.[1]A court revoked the
house-arrest measure and ordered his return to Palmasola prison.[1]Zeballos
denied deliberately missing electronic check-ins and blamed the recorded
absences on failures in the ROMA-ARGO monitoring system.[2]
He had spent eight months in preventive detention at Palmasola before his
release into house arrest on 4 August.[3]His release followed a 24 July court
order for personal precautionary measures.[4]
In the underlying cannabis case, police searched a security-company warehouse
linked to Zeballos on 20 January, and FELCN reported finding 79 kg of marijuana
there.[5]A Santa Cruz court ordered Zeballos held preventively for 120 days
on 25 January while investigating suspected controlled-substance trafficking,
criminal association and conspiracy.[5]EL PAÍS reported 80 kg of marijuana
and said police also found machinery for processing it.[6]The wider
investigation also concerned 32 suitcases of unknown contents that arrived at
Viru Viru airport from the United States in November 2025.[4]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
El Díaeldia.com.boESCaso maletas: dictan detención preventiva para el juez Hebert Zeballos
EL PAÍS Américaelpais.comESDetenidos un juez y una exdiputada en Bolivia por narcotráfico y asociación delictiva
Open questions the AI reported
El Día cites a FELCN report giving 79 kg, while EL PAÍS reports 80 kg; the figure records the FELCN-based amount.
The opened accounts do not report a final judgment on the cannabis prosecution or a ruling on Zeballos's claim that check-in failures were caused by technical faults.
Felcn's detector dog Lía alerted on two bags in the parcel store of an interprovincial transport company in southern Cochabamba. Officers found 42 vacuum-sealed packages that tested positive for marijuana. No weight or arrest was reported.
Bolivia's anti-narcotics force arrested two women and one man in Puerto Quijarro, on the border with Brazil, after finding 31 packages of marijuana in their vehicle and another seven in a linked property. The officers seized the house, the vehicle and two phones and sent the three to the Public Ministry; no weight was published for the 38 packages.
Prosecutors and police in Riberalta, Beni, arrested two Brazilian citizens and a Bolivian after finding 258 kilos and 650 grams of marijuana in jute sacks in a room. The three were held for investigation of controlled-substance trafficking and awaited a custody hearing.
Bolivian police and prosecutors arrested Fredy Alberto Godoy Segovia, president of a Colorado Party branch in Paraguay's San Pedro department, and two other Paraguayans at Naranjos in Santa Cruz on 22 August 2017. Officers seized five tonnes, 111 kilos and 300 grams of marijuana in 470 packages, and prosecutors said they would charge all three with drug trafficking.
