What You Need to Know:
In two operations termed ‘Camillo’ and ‘El Valle’, Chilean police seized 661 lbs of Marijuana and cocaine base paste while in transit from the north of the country to Santiago Province.
Anti-drug officers seized 93 packages of cocaine base paste, weighing around 220 lbs, which were located in the false bottom of a pick-up truck. As a result, two men– a Chilean and a Colombian were arrested.
Almost 450 lbs of marijuana, hidden in oil drums en route to western Santiago, was seized in the second operation ‘El Valle’, and resulted in the arrest of nine Colombians and one Chilean.
In total, the operation recovered around $2.8 billion pesos worth of drugs, with raids also being conducted in Cerro Navia, Estacion Central and Alto Hospicio.
The Details:
According to the Organized Crime Index, Chile has one of the highest cocaine consumption rates in South America.
“In addition to being a destination and transit country, it is also a major supplier of the controlled substances used in production…Chile is located next to two significant cocaine producing countries, Peru and Bolivia, and cocaine is moved through Chile to Australia, the Netherlands, Jordan, Italy, Belgium, Uruguay, France, Panama, Norway and Sweden.”
Additionally, Chile has a large domestic market for marijuana and thus most locally produced cannabis supplies local demand, although Colombian narco networks do use the country as a transit route to run cannabis to Argentina.