Army lieutenant held with 500 marijuana packages at Maracaibo bridge
Venezuelan army first lieutenant Yorjan José Ojeda Páez was detained at a National Guard checkpoint on the General Rafael Urdaneta bridge in Zulia with 500 marijuana packages, between 255 and 260 kg by different accounts. He was charged with drug trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2018.
🇻🇪 Punta de Piedra checkpoint, General Rafael Urdaneta bridge, Zulia · Venezuela
Arrested
1
Cannabis
255.31 kg
Agencies
Venezuelan Army (Ejército Bolivariano), National Guard (GNB) +2
Venezuelan army first lieutenant Yorjan José Ojeda Páez was detained before dawn
on 13 February 2016 at the Punta de Piedra checkpoint on the General Rafael
Urdaneta bridge over Lake Maracaibo, in Zulia state, while driving a Toyota
pickup truck with army insignia.[1]A search of the vehicle found 15 cardboard
boxes holding 500 packages of marijuana and 10 packages of cocaine.[2]National Guard officers at the bridge checkpoint stopped the vehicle for a
routine inspection, El Nacional reported in its account of the case.[3]
La Verdad, citing an official, put the marijuana at 500 bricks weighing 255 kg
and 310 g.[1]El Nacional later reported that the 500 marijuana packages
weighed 260 kg and 110 g.[3]El Pitazo reported the combined weight of the
marijuana and cocaine as 266 kg and 20 g, without separating the two drugs.[4]
Venezuela’s public prosecutor’s office charged Ojeda Páez and army lieutenant
colonel José Antonio Picón with traffickingnarcotic and psychotropic substances
in the form of transport, and with criminal association.[4]Picón, commander
of a radio-electronic exploration unit of the Strategic Operational Command in
El Tigre, was arrested in Maracaibo on 29 February 2016 on an arrest warrant
requested by the prosecutors.[4]
In March 2018 a court in Zulia sentenced Ojeda Páez to 20 years in prison after
he admitted the trafficking charge, and he was held at the Coro prison.[3]El
Nacional reported that Picón, a National Guard sergeant and a police officer
were still awaiting trial in the case.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
1
Cannabis
255.31 kg
Agencies
Venezuelan Army (Ejército Bolivariano); National Guard (GNB); Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Público); Zulia 1st Trial Court
Agency type
Military, Gendarmerie, Prosecutor, Court
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (255.31 kg)
Activity
Trafficking
Setting
Vehicle, Street or public place
Charges
trafficking narcotic and psychotropic substances in the form of transport; criminal association
El Pitazoelpitazo.netESAcusan a teniente coronel y exprimer teniente del Ejército por tráfico de droga en Zulia
Open questions the AI reported
Marijuana weights differ between accounts: 255 kg 310 g (La Verdad), 260 kg 110 g (El Nacional) and combined totals of 266 kg 20 g (El Pitazo, 15 boxes) or 265 kg 320 g (Cuentas Claras, 15 boxes) that do not separate the cannabis from the cocaine; the report uses the figure stated for marijuana alone.
La Verdad counts 510 packages of drug (500 marijuana, 10 cocaine) while other accounts cite 14 or 15 cardboard boxes for the same load.
Accounts differ on the date: the submitted DW dispatch and Cuentas Claras describe the detention as taking place on Saturday 13 February, the DW report saying 'este sábado', while El Nacional gives 12 February; the report uses 13 February, the reported dawn hour at the checkpoint.
The submitted DW page says the cocaine and marijuana were hidden in the seats of the vehicle, while the other accounts place cardboard boxes in the cabin or cargo bed.
No street value of the marijuana was published in the opened accounts.
Whether Picón, the National Guard sergeant or the police officer had been tried by 2018 was not reported; El Nacional said they were awaiting trial in March 2018.
El Pitazo spells the name as Yorman José Ojeda Páez and DW and La Verdad as Yorjan; the report uses Yorjan, the spelling in the majority of accounts.
The Bolivarian National Guard stopped a go-fast boat off Falcón and arrested three people. The load was 1,485.506 kg of marijuana in 1,726 cakes and 8.856 kg of cocaine in nine cakes, after intelligence work with French customs.
Venezuela’s interior ministry said the National Guard, the navy and the French navy seized 1,727.40 kg of marijuana and 1,173.50 kg of cocaine at sea in the Caribbean and arrested four people. The detainees and the drugs were sent to prosecutors.
CICPC officers dismantled the organised crime group "El Clan de Los Salas" in Píritu, Falcón, seizing 274.8 kg of marijuana in 482 cakes from a rural house used as a collection point for shipments to the Caribbean. The 59-year-old owner of the property was arrested and handed to the 21st drugs prosecutor, while the men guarding the load escaped.
Police officers of the Bolivarian National Police (CPNB) intelligence directorate in Nueva Esparta carried out an operation on Cubagua island that ended with two men detained. The officers seized more than 800 kilograms of presumed marijuana packed in 1,529 wrappers, along with GPS devices, mobile phones and a generator.
