Chilean customs authorities seized a multimillion-dollar shipment of cocaine paste and hydrochloride at the Colchane border complex (Tarapacá Region).
The National Customs Service reported on Tuesday (08.08.2023) that the drugs were hidden in the structure of an international bus that was traveling from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba to Iquique.
El Regional Director of the Iquique Customs, Cristian Molina Silva, explained that during the control processes of vehicles and loads entering and leaving Chile, a bus with a Chilean license plate that provides services for a Bolivian company was inspected. “Thanks to the expertise and training of the inspectors, an irregularity was detected in the structure of the machine, which led to the intervention and dismantling of a section of the bus,” he stated.
When dismantling the irregular compartment, customs officers found a total of 37 packages containing 21 kilos 100 grams of cocaine paste; and 59 packages with a total of 65 kilos 100 grams of cocaine hydrochloride. This entire shipment could reach a value of $1.438 million pesos on the Chilean black market (USD 1 million 753 thousand dollars).
Molina Silva praised the intervention and pointed out that all the information was handed over to the prosecutor on duty, who instructed the police on duty to continue with the subsequent investigations and the transfer and custody of the drugs. The bus was seized and its passengers had to be relocated to other means.
Customs explained that the two bus drivers, both of Bolivian nationality, upon seeing that the Chilean inspectors were inspecting the sector where the drugs came from, decided to abandon the line they were in at immigration and returned to Bolivia.
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