Carabineros seize 1,845 kg of cannabis hidden near Taltal
Carabineros and the Antofagasta prosecutor's office seized 1,845 kg of cannabis hidden in a ravine near Taltal and arrested two Venezuelan adults. The prosecutor's office said they would be formally charged in the coming days.
The Antofagasta regional prosecutor’s office and Carabineros seized1,845 kilograms of cannabis that had been hidden in a ravine in difficult country near Taltal.[1]La Tercera, reporting the same day, 23 April 2026, said officers used a helicopter and a search through the hills, and found the stash about 30 kilometres off the road into the desert.[2]
The operation began with vehicle checks by the Alemania post of Taltal’s 1st police station.[2]Officers stopped a vehicle they thought was being used for a crime and told the prosecutor’s office, which sent the OS7 anti-drug unit from the Antofagasta prefecture.[2]The two people in the vehicle, both Venezuelan adults without regular immigration status, were arrested.[1][2]
The regional prosecutor, Juan Castro Bekios, called it a seizure of about 1.8 tonnes and said the two would be formally charged in the coming days.[1]He put the region’s drug seizures for the year, with this load included, at 23.8 tonnes.[1]General Cristian Montre Soto, head of the Carabineros zone, said the find came from checks on the region’s roads.[2]
Photos and video
Rows of wrapped packages laid out on a sports ground, with Carabineros officers in the background.Photo details
Fiscalía de Chilefiscaliadechile.clESIncautación de 1.845 kilos de marihuana eleva los decomisos a casi 24 toneladas en los primeros meses de este año en Antofagasta
The PDI intercepted 12 kilograms of cannabis sativa sent by parcel from the Metropolitan Region to Coyhaique and valued by police at more than 198 million pesos. Investigators say a prisoner serving a drug-trafficking sentence in Coyhaique prison coordinated the shipments, and the man arrested collecting the parcels was placed in preventive detention.
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.
