Paraguay is leading exporter of narcotics to Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With the Sapucay drug case in Itatí, haunting the people of Corrientes in a story that obscured the riverside community, on Monday November 1, the newspaper reported that “a massive influx of drugs, mainly marijuana, is registered in Argentina through the extensive border with our country.”

In addition to focusing on the border involving the province of Misiones, the same events are occurring in the jurisdiction of Corrientes, specifically in the Itatí and Itá Ibaté areas, citing a report by the InSight Crime Foundation, which investigates organized crime.

“This phenomenon can be seen with the large number of seizures on the Argentine side of the border” and that “marijuana is undoubtedly the drug of choice for criminal organizations to traffic. Paraguayan and Argentine networks control the illegal business in the border cities,” states the report.

It says that “the official website of the Argentine State often publishes about drug seizures on the border with our country. Last October 18, it reported the seizure of almost 5 tons of marijuana in the city of Puerto Iguazú, province of Misiones. As an example of something recurrent, 2 days later, it reported the seizure of more than 1,380 kilos of marijuana in the town of Puerto Rico, also in the province of Misiones,” shipments that often use Corrientes routes to be transported to Buenos Aires and other places.

It recalls a document prepared by the Directorate of Dangerous Drugs and the Misiones Police’s Provincial Observatory on Drugs, where it states that one of the “main marijuana” inflows comes from Paraguay and that it is transported by land through other routes crossing Misiones “bound for Brazil, the interior of the country and a great part of it remains in our province.”

Still citing the newspaper article “the InSight Crime foundation, which investigates organized crime, considers Corrientes as ‘a nerve center of the lucrative trafficking of marijuana in Argentina’. This province appears to be the second most important entry point for Paraguayan marijuana after Misiones.”

It adds that “the drug is distributed to other provinces with more lucrative consumption markets, such as Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. A trafficking network in Itatí managed to smuggle over 6 tons of marijuana per week from Paraguay to Argentina, according to the organization.”

Paraguay is the main producer of marijuana in the region. Eighty percent of its production is destined for Brazil, and 15% for Argentina, according to National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) data.

Since 2017, SENAD has been operating jointly with Argentine agencies to fight crime in the region. Through this cooperation, 59 anti-drug operations and over US$5 million in losses to drug trafficking were achieved, according to the institution.