The National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) of Paraguay confirmed that largest seizure of marijuana in transit in this country’s history: 88,991 kilograms of pressed cannabiswhich were intercepted during the so-called “Operation Threshold” in Saltos del Guairá, Canindeyú department. The shipment, estimated to be worth more than $13.3 million in the Brazilian market, was circulating in a convoy of 19 vehicles that traveled more than 120 kilometers without being detected by local police authorities. Drug traffic in this country is closely monitored in terms of volume and logistics in our country, since the groups that operate the marijuana network in Paraguay supply the Argentine illegal market.
The operation, carried out in the early hours of last Wednesday, was carried out by the Senad Intelligence Directorate in coordination with the Internal Defense Operations Command (CODI) and the Ministry of State of Paraguay. During the intervention, an armed confrontation occurred that ended with the arrest of five people, the killing of one member of the criminal organization and the wounding of another. The 19 vehicles used to transport the illegal cargo were confiscated.
Senad Minister Jalil Rachid denounced that the drug convoy drove freely along a route where 11 police stations were deployed without anyone intervening. “The cars were fully loaded and traveling freely in a caravan,” explained Rachid, who did not rule out the involvement of control authorities involved. The Senate leader explained that police officers in the area “were either receiving payments or at least sleeping instead of working.”
The controversy intensified when the documents of Commissioner Osvaldo Andino, the National Police’s director of investigations, were found in a flight zone. Andino argued that the papers fell out while he was “providing assistance” to the agents involved in the operation. However, this version was denied by Rachid: “No police took part in the process,” he explained. The commander of the National Police, Carlos Benítez, defended Andino and announced that all agents from the police stations stationed along the route have been replaced and are being investigated by the Internal Affairs Department.
This record seizure highlights the scale of the illegal cannabis industry in Paraguay, which is considered the largest marijuana producer in South America and the second largest in the world after Morocco. According to reports from the National Anti-Drug Secretariat, the country grows about 21,000 hectares of cannabis per year, although experts estimate that the actual number could triple this estimate and reach up to 10,000 effective hectares with an annual production of over 30,000 tons.
The Paraguayan geography offers ideal conditions for cultivation: subtropical climate, fertile land and vast border areas that are difficult to control. The main plantations are concentrated in the departments of Amambay, Canindeyú, San Pedro, Concepción, Caaguazú, Alto Paraná and Itapúa, in border areas with Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.
The improvement of cultivation techniques with the introduction of seeds improved by transgenic crops in the last decade has allowed an expansion of harvests from two to three or even four annual cycles and led to an increase in productivity in the Kambá-Rembé area. Brazilian criminal organizations such as the Red Command and the First Capital Command (PCC) acquired lands and ranches on Paraguayan territory in order to establish their own plantations there and thus vertically integrate the production and trade chain.
According to the United Nations World Drug Report, 77% of marijuana produced in Paraguay is destined for the Brazilian market, 20% is distributed between Argentina and Bolivia and only 4% remains in Paraguayan territory for local consumption. With a population of more than 200 million, Brazil represents the region’s most important cannabis consumer market.
The “Paraguayan pressing” has become the dominant product in the Brazilian market, where price has traditionally prioritized quality. Paraguayan marijuana is sold on plantations for about 6 dollars per kilo, on the Paraguayan market it reaches 45 dollars and in Brazil it exceeds 1,200 dollars. If the final destination is Chile – via Bolivia and Argentina as transit countries – the price can rise to $2,500 per kilogram.
The border between Paraguay and Brazil, particularly on the Pedro Juan Caballero-Punta Porá axis, is the epicenter of the regional drug trade. This binational metropolitan area facilitates drug transport and has sparked a fierce territorial dispute between Brazilian criminal organizations over control of routes. The small planes that bomb drugs on Argentine territory take off from there.
While the illegal production of marijuana generates almost $800 million annually without taxes, Paraguay passed Law 6007 in 2017, allowing the medical use of cannabis, although with strict restrictions. As of 2020, only 12 local companies have received licenses for drug production and only one has managed to register a product with THC. The legal contradiction is noteworthy: possession of up to 10 grams is decriminalized, but growing a single plant can be punished with a prison sentence of between 5 and 15 years.
Currently, the Paraguayan Senate is debating a historic reform that could legalize cannabis for adult use in March 2025, allowing sales in regulated pharmacies and offering farming families up to $25,000 per hectare of legal cultivation, as confirmed by Marcelo Demp, president of the Chamber of Industrial Cannabis of Paraguay. If completed, Paraguay would be the first South American country to offer recreational cannabis to tourists in a regulated market.
Rachid stressed that Operation Threshold “represents a tough impact on criminal logistics that use Paraguayan territory as a transit route.” The minister, a former prosecutor specializing in drug trafficking in Canindeyú, stressed that the result reflects “the strategic intelligence work and inter-institutional coordination developed by the institution.”
This seizure surpasses the previous record of 57,850 kilos seized on December 23, 2024 in the Marangatu district, also in Canindeyú. However, the seizure figures – spectacular as they may seem – barely scratch the surface of an industry that transports thousands of tonnes annually to regional markets, with networks that include everything from farmers exploited in semi-feudal conditions to transnational criminal structures with the logistical capacity to mobilize convoys of almost 20 vehicles on routes allegedly controlled by the Paraguayan authorities.