RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Eight hundred thirty-six tons of marijuana were destroyed in an operation between Paraguay and Brazil. A blow to transnational drug trafficking worth more than US$25 million.
The joint operation of Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat and the Brazilian Federal Police culminated last Sunday with the destruction of numerous marijuana plantations and the dismantling of 103 drug camps in the border department of Amambay.
“The operation consists of eradicating illicit marijuana crops in the area. As you can see, there are several active plots in the area, and our job is to eradicate all the illicit crops and burn all the equipment we can find in the area and, if the situation arises, apprehend the perpetrators,” said Aldo Pintos, Lieutenant Colonel of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD).
The city has been plagued by a wave of violence in recent weeks that ended with the murder of the mayor at the hands of hired assassins. This operation aims to curb it by detecting suspicious illicit activities and establishing deterrent controls.
Francisco Ayala, the SENAD spokesman, explains that “these actions intend to put the brakes on this type of activities through controls and patrols in different points of Pedro Juan Caballero, in parallel to other types of interventions that are being carried out in rural areas.”
Paraguay has become one of the key points of a drug route between Bolivia and Argentina to Europe in recent times.
With information from AFP
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