A Bolivian miner was caught with 7.240 Ecstasy pills by officials of the Chilean National Customs Service at the El Loa outpost, located 152 kilometers south of Iquique. It is known that the subject was traveling with the drugs to the city of Santiago.
The Regional Director of the Iquique Customs, Cristian Molina Silva, said that the procedure was developed thanks to the application of risk profiles "and in circumstances where the passengers of a bus bound for Santiago were being monitored. In this context, one of the passengers was selected for a special check and it was established that he was hiding seven packages containing synthetic drugs in the form of pills.".
When the pills were tested, it was found that they were a substance called methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as MDMA or Ecstasy. It is a synthetic drug that produces euphoria, but at the same time causes irritability, liver damage and sudden changes in body temperature, which can cause heart attacks and death.
Molina said that once the presence of drugs was confirmed, the Public Prosecutor's Office was informed and the drugs, along with the person involved and the evidence, were handed over to the police via chain of custody.
"To confront the phenomenon of synthetic drugs, we have carried out a cross-cutting treatment with training and constant feedback of alerts and profiles, which has allowed us to achieve a series of successful procedures and prevent these substances from entering the market and endangering the community.", added Molina.
The 7.240 Ecstasy pills, which had designs similar to Ferrari and Tesla printed on them, weighed a total of 3 kilos 155,50 grams and could reach a value of more than $108 million on the black market (US$ 154 thousand).
The passenger was charged with drug trafficking and was placed in preventive detention for the duration of the investigation for 120 days.
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