Paraguayan authorities have seized more than four tons of cocaine with a street value of around $240 million inside a sugar shipment bound for Belgium, the country’s anti-drug agency, Senad, said Tuesday (16).
The cocaine seizure – dubbed “Operation Sweetness” – is the largest in the country’s history and was carried out at the seaport in the capital Asunción, according to Senad.
Senad said that, after “detecting a suspicious shipment”, it coordinated with other government agencies to carry out the drug seizure, adding that more containers are currently being inspected and that “all investigative processes are focused on the criminal structure that activated the logistics of mobilizing the cargo mainly to the European continent.”
One person was detained, a truck driver who allegedly left the drug shipment at the port, Senad Minister Jalil Rachid told Paraguayan network ABC.
Rachid provided few details about the investigation but said an organized criminal group was likely behind the shipment.
“Today, drugs do not leave Paraguay, drugs are confiscated here in our territory, and now the big challenge is to prevent drugs from entering Paraguay, clearly the country is not a producer of cocaine,” Paraguayan President Santiago Peña told local media after the seizure.
Peña said the country is “used as a drug route and obviously this (seizure) will discourage (traffickers)”.
“I think this is a signal sent to organized crime groups to stop using Paraguay, because they will come up against authorities who are determined,” the president said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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