Police find more than 3 tons of drugs in trailer with donations to RS

At least 3 tons of marijuana were found this Tuesday morning (21) in the false bottom of a trailer with donations for flood victims in Rio Grande do Sul. The drug was located by the Federal Highway Police (PRF) BR-101 in Palhoça (SC).

This was the second such occurrence in less than a week.

Police estimate that the volume of drugs could reach 5 tons. The vehicle left the city of Toledo (PR) with bales of water bottles, food, clothes and feed. Underneath the products, a false bottom was discovered that occupied around half of the semi-trailer's capacity, according to the agents.

The driver, a 28-year-old man from Paraná, told the PRF that he received extra payment, in addition to the normal freight, to take the truck to Porto Alegre, but claimed not to know that the additional load was marijuana.

The man was taken to the Federal Police (PF) in Florianópolis (SC) and will be charged with drug trafficking.

The PRF informs that donations are being transported to other vehicles to go “as quickly as possible” towards the homeless.

Another seizure

Last Saturday (18), a joint action by the PRF and the Santa Catarina Military Highway Police seized 50 kilos of cocaine and one kilo of crack in a trailer that was traveling with donations to Rio Grande do Sul.

The truck, with Cascavel (PR) license plates, carried 20 tons of donations, correctly collected by the Civil Defense, in Paraná. The vehicle was traveling with a humanitarian aid credential issued by the municipality's Civil Defense, and a sticker with the words “SOS Rio Grande do Sul”, according to the PRF.

The 39-year-old driver confessed that he would deliver the spare tire to a gas station, shortly before unloading the donations to the state. He was taken to the Federal Police in Chapecó (SC) to answer for drug trafficking.