A recent seizure of nearly 10 tons of marijuana in Argentina was portrayed by the government as an historic blow to organized crime, but it actually highlighted a recurring smuggling dynamic on the South American country’s northern border that has become more prevalent over time.
On November 21, Argentina’s National Gendarmerie (Gendarmería Nacional de Argentina) announced a massive 9.8-ton seizure of marijuana in the town of Caraguatay, located in the northeast province of Misiones. Then-Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who is now a senator, called the bust the largest drug seizure in the country’s history.
The drug shipment originated in Brazil and was seized along the National 12 highway, which connects Puerto Iguazú in the north of the country to the port city of Zárate in the central province of Buenos Aires.
Authorities became suspicious of the vehicle due to inconsistencies in the truck driver’s paperwork and other evidence that suggested the vehicle had been manipulated to transport drugs. They uncovered 326 large bundles containing 11,667 smaller packages of marijuana. The Brazilian driver was arrested and the vehicle, which also had an active seizure order due to a past robbery in Buenos Aires province, was impounded.
A Familiar Pattern
The recent seizure in Caraguatay is emblematic of other recent large-scale marijuana busts recorded in 2014 and 2022 that involved Brazilian trucks, multi-ton shipments, falsified documents, and irregular seals on the packages.
The repeated use of this modus operandi is no coincidence. The porous nature of Misiones province and the tri-border area it shares with Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay makes highways 12 and 14 key corridors for transporting large drug shipments. The loads are frequently mixed with legal merchandise in cargo trucks, complicating efforts to detect them.
The seizures followed a consistent pattern. Trucks enter the country empty through international border crossings and are then moved to loading areas within Misiones. In these areas, marijuana is hidden within legitimate cargo, such as sawdust and lumber, and the documentation and seals are often falsified before the drugs are transported to the country’s main urban centers, primarily Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba. Some shipments are also trafficked into neighboring countries, although to a lesser extent.
This trafficking pattern highlights the transnational logistics networks behind these large shipments, as well as criminal coordination between Paraguayan suppliers, Brazilian logistics providers, and Argentine operators.
While criminal organizations from other countries can take advantage of local infrastructure, “marijuana is usually handled by local networks” in Argentina, said Martín Verrier, Secretary for the Fight against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime.
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The impact of large-scale seizures at the national level has been limited and primarily affects logistics, according to an official source who spoke to InSight Crime on the condition of anonymity. Trafficking organizations may face greater difficulties finding drivers willing to risk transporting drugs. As a result, they are forced to resort to less sophisticated methods that can jeopardize their operations.
However, the increase in seizures does not necessarily reduce marijuana trafficking. Smuggling dynamics are deeply rooted in the socioeconomic structure of the border region, where the loss of one or more shipments can be absorbed without affecting the overall flow to domestic or regional markets.
Even if seizures are presented as a success, they could actually be masking a larger flow of drugs, according to Sebastián Cutrona, a professor of criminology at Liverpool Hope University in England. Instead of reflecting effective drug trafficking controls, he said they could be part of a political strategy to demonstrate increased action without a real decrease in trafficking.
Featured image: Argentine authorities process a record marijuana seizure in Misiones. Credit: National Gendarmerie