Gendarmerie seizes 8.5 tonnes of marijuana hidden in car-parts truck
Argentina's Gendarmería stopped a truck on Route 14 near Tapebicuá, Corrientes, and found 8,500 kg of marijuana in 9,500 packages hidden in boxes of car parts, the largest seizure in the country's history at the time. The load had come from Paraguay and was bound for Chile, and the driver was detained.
🇦🇷 Tapebicuá, Paso de los Libres department, Corrientes · Argentina
Troops of Gendarmería Nacional Squadron 7 intercepted a truck on Route 14 near
Tapebicuá, in the Paso de los Libres department of Corrientes, at about 4 a.m.
on Saturday and found 8,500 kilograms of marijuana packed in 9,500 parcels
hidden in boxes of car parts.[1][2]Federal judge Gladys Mabel Borda of Paso
de los Libres ordered the load seized and the truck driver detained.[2]
National Security Secretary Sergio Berni called it the largest marijuana
seizure in Argentina’s history, valued by the authorities at more than 80
million pesos.[1][2]The shipment had come from Paraguay and was travelling
in transit toward Chile, where Berni said it would be worth three to four
times its Argentine value, over 250 million pesos.[1][3]The driver, a
Paraguayan national, carried false customs papers from Chile, Brazil, Paraguay
and Argentina.[3]
Follow-up to the El Francés investigation
The seizure grew out of surveillance and telephone wiretaps in the case against
Thierry Andre Polus, alias El Francés de Mado, described as the country’s
biggest marijuana trafficker until his arrest in Misiones in February of the
previous year.[2]Berni said several more procedures were under way and
investigators were following several leads from the interception.[1]The
Gendarmería had seized almost 80 tons of marijuana so far that year.[3]
Primera Edicion identifies Thierry André Polus as a Polish and French citizen convicted in Misiones and expelled to Paraguay in 2016.[4]
Photos and video
Packages of the marijuana seized in Paso de los LibresPhoto details
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Cleaning staff found a package of marijuana on a long-distance bus that had arrived at the Chajarí terminal in Entre Ríos after leaving Paraná, and the drivers called the police. Officers of the Federación department drug division tested and seized the substance and left the case with the prosecutor's office, with no one arrested.
Chaco police securing a woman's belongings from a room she rented in Resistencia found two cannabis seedlings, marijuana flowers and indoor growing equipment, and anti-drug officers' field tests were positive for marijuana. The woman was detained after another clash with the owner and released on the order of the anti-drug prosecutor's office, which kept the items but not the cash.
