The Organized Crime Sentencing Court of Asunción ordered the definitive seizure of an aircraft used to transport more than 265 kilograms of cocaine. The decision was made at the request of the Alto Paraná anti-drug prosecutor, Elvio Aguilera Vázquez, and was based on Article 47 of Law No. 1340/88, which establishes the mandatory confiscation of means of transport used in the illicit trafficking of narcotics.
The court, composed of judges Federico Rojas, María Luz Martínez, and Rossana Maldonado, also sentenced the two crew members of the aircraft to prison terms. Bolivian pilot Lucio Alfonzo Paz Fernández, 36, received a 14-year sentence, while Peruvian copilot Elmer Enrique Figueroa Paredes, 53, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for international drug trafficking and related crimes.
The case originated on January 29, 2023, when a joint operation by the Specialized Anti-Drug Prosecution Office of Alto Paraná and the National Police's Anti-Narcotics Department intercepted a Cessna 206 aircraft, bearing Bolivian registration CP-2038, in the rural area known as Gleba 11, on the outskirts of the district of Hernandarias. Inside the plane, authorities found 265.095 kilograms of cocaine, distributed in 260 compact blocks.
According to the investigation, the convicted individuals had entered Paraguayan airspace from Bolivia and landed on a rural road with the sole purpose of refueling to continue their journey toward the Brazilian market, when they were caught and apprehended by security forces.
Paraguay is one of the main cocaine transit countries in South America, serving as a route between Andean producers and consumers in Brazil and Europe. Law 1340/88, frequently applied in cases such as this one, provides for the mandatory confiscation of assets used in drug trafficking, including vehicles and aircraft.