Paraguayan authorities on Friday, September 18, incinerated 40,048 kilograms of pressed marijuana seized in Paso Bravo National Park in the north of the country. The destruction took place at the headquarters of the Internal Defense Operations Command (CODI), in Arroyito, after the weight was confirmed and samples were preserved for the investigation.
The shipment was divided into 1,327 packages hidden in 23 underground storage sites found during Operation Paso Bravo, carried out between September 12 and 13 in the districts of San Carlos del Apa and Sargento José Félix López, in the department of Concepción. The hiding places were near an old clandestine airstrip that, according to the authorities, may have been used to traffic cocaine.
The operation began with military intelligence work. A Joint Task Force (FTC) team, the agency that coordinates interinstitutional operations against organized crime, then took five days to remove the drugs from the hiding places and transport them to the CODI base. A makeshift camp and an abandoned Toyota Hilux pickup truck were also found at the site.
Héctor Daniel Morán, a criminal guarantees judge for the fourth judicial district of the Concepción Judicial Circuit, authorized the procedure at the request of prosecutor Pablo Zárate. The decision applied the mechanism for the advance judicial preservation of evidence, provided for in Article 320 of the Criminal Procedure Code, to record the amount seized before its destruction. A minimum sample was set aside and will be sent to the laboratory of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) for chemical analysis.
The incineration was carried out in a prepared area, using firewood and fuel, under the supervision of judicial and prosecutorial authorities, Senad officials and military forces. The disclosed estimate is that the shipment would have been worth about US$6.5 million on the Brazilian market. This figure is a market valuation and does not correspond to an amount recovered by the state.
The prosecutor said the destruction concludes a significant stage of the case, but the investigation continues to identify the owner of the drugs and the other people involved. General Rufino Gaona, the CODI commander, said the operation had been completed, although FTC members remain carrying out tasks in the region.