Five held in Villa Pehuenia with 503.9 kg of marijuana in a pickup
Gendarmería Nacional officers found 493 marijuana bricks weighing 503 kilos 968 grams, along with 29 kilos of cocaine, in 22 burlap sacks inside a pickup truck in Villa Pehuenia, Neuquén. The Zapala federal court ordered searches of vehicles and a cabin where those involved were staying, and five people were detained.
🇦🇷 Villa Pehuenia, Aluminé department, Neuquén · Argentina
Officers of Gendarmería Nacional Argentina’s Squadron 32 Aluminé, with the
Zapala complex-crimes investigations unit, mounted a cordon operation to find
out whether drugs were being moved through west-central Neuquén province.[1]The gendarmes set up a vehicle checkpoint on Provincial Route 13 at the Litrán
hamlet, where they inspected two vehicles and found sums of money, 1.7 grams of
cocaine and portable communications equipment.[1]The Zapala federal court
issued search orders for two more vehicles parked in the street and a warrant to
search a cabin where the people involved were staying temporarily.[1]
Inside a pickup truck at Villa Pehuenia, officers found 22 white burlap sacks,
one of them holding 27 cocaine bricks weighing 29 kilos35 grams.[1]The other
21 sacks held 493 marijuana bricks with a total weight of 503 kilos968 grams,
the figure used for the cannabis seizure here.[1]
The judge handling the case ordered the detention of the five people involved.[1]
The newspaper El Diario de la República, carrying a Télam report, says the
amount of cocaine came to 29.35 kilos and that the court also ordered the drug
held as evidence.[2]That report also says the vehicle holding the sacks had
been found abandoned in Villa Pehuenia, and the Télam account puts the marijuana
at about half a tonne.[2]
Photos and video
Lead image of the Gendarmería release on the Villa Pehuenia seizure, published without a caption. Photo: Gendarmería Nacional Argentina.Photo details
The release dates the operation to 'ayer' (yesterday) and was published on 24 July 2021, so 23 July 2021 is used as the incident date; neither account gives an hour for the pickup's discovery.
The two sources differ slightly on the cocaine weight, 29 kilos 35 grams in the release and 29.35 kilos in the Télam report; no cocaine figure is recorded here because the tracker counts only cannabis.
The release calls the searched address a domicilio and a cabin where those involved stayed; the Télam report describes the drug found in a pickup abandoned in Villa Pehuenia, and neither names the settlement where the cabin stands.
The five detainees are not named and no ages are given.
No charges, pre-trial detention decision or court outcome beyond the judge's detention and seizure orders were reported.
No street value was published for the seizure, and the sum of money found in the inspected vehicles was not counted.
A second official Gendarmería release about this case, seen in search results, could not be addressed because its link returned a 404 error when opened.
The three handout photos on the government page carry no captions or credits, so what each shows beyond belonging to this operation is not established.
Police in Salta detained a 26-year-old driver during a vehicle checkpoint on Ruta Nacional 9 in Campo Alegre, La Caldera. Officers from the División Investigación Narcocriminal 2 seized 70 doses of marijuana and cocaine after preliminary field tests.
Road police at the Subfluvial Tunnel control post identified a 33-year-old Buenos Aires man carrying cocaine and marijuana in a van. Field tests confirmed 2.1 grams of marijuana alongside 5.9 grams of cocaine, and the case was treated as simple possession.
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.
