Gendarmerie officers, after investigation work, set up checkpoints on National Routes 12, 14 and 120 to stop a large vehicle believed to be carrying drugs from Misiones to San Juan.[1] Officers intercepted a Chevrolet Onix acting as scout for a Fiat Iveco truck, which tried to flee, and apprehended one Argentine man near the city of Gobernador Virasoro.[1] Officers separately stopped the truck at kilometre 745 of National Route 14, where two men of the same nationality were travelling.[1] The Federal Court No. 1 of Corrientes ordered the seizure of the drugs and the detention of the three people, described as members of a criminal organisation supplying drugs to Cordoba, San Juan and presumably Chile.[1]
Inspection of the truck, in front of witnesses, found that 497 packages of plant material had been packed into the auxiliary fuel tank behind the cab.[1] Forensic officers’ Narcotest field tests were positive for cannabis sativa, with a total weight of 345 kilos 741 grams.[1] The El Litoral account of the same operation was published on 28 November 2018.[2]
Court-ordered searches of six homes in the Misiones city of Posadas and in Garupa were later carried out by judicial-investigation units and Squadrons 50 Posadas and 47 Ituzaingo.[1] Those follow-up operations seized a vehicle, mobile phones, cash and other items of interest to the case.[1] The San Juan outlet likewise reports that the marijuana was being carried in a truck’s auxiliary fuel tank from Misiones with San Juan as its final destination, ending with three detainees.[3] The Corrientes outlet NOVA Corrientes likewise reports 345 kilos 741 grams of marijuana transported in a truck’s auxiliary fuel tank in Corrientes.[4]
