This is how they detected the smuggling of 7,400 kilograms of marijuana hidden in a shipment of wood after seizing 89 tons of drugs in a convoy of vehicles.

The Gendarmerie personnel stationed at the checkpoint on Route 14 near the border between Misiones and Corrientes used their mobile scanner to verify that the semi-trailer truck bound for the city of Pehuajó in Buenos Aires was indeed carrying the batch of wooden slats listed on its cargo manifest. But what the image revealed was something quite different. "That initial suspicion triggered the second step of the protocol. That's when the security force's canine team entered the scene. Tied to a long leash held by her partner, Jackie the dog climbed into the truck. She reacted immediately, first with restless movements, and then by scratching at the wood and barking to signal her discovery. What followed was confirmation of what was suspected: the wooden crates concealed thousands of perfectly stowed packages. There were more than seven tons of marijuana." The operation took place days after the seizure of 89 tons of cannabis in a convoy intercepted in Saltos de Guayra, Paraguay. This was the largest drug seizure in the history of the neighboring country, a historic producer of cannabis that floods the markets of the Southern Cone. "That seizure, announced by Paraguay's National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) as ‘Operation Umbral,’ set off alarms among law enforcement agencies throughout the region. Saltos de Guayra is located on the border with Brazil, and from there the Paraná River continues its long journey to feed the Hidrovía. The truth is that on Monday, members of the “San José” Section of Squadron 8 “Alto Uruguay” of the Gendarmerie, deployed at kilometer 785 of National Route No. 14, stopped a truck carrying a load of wood, a commodity from the mountainous region of Misiones. They had a mobile scanner, and the images were revealing: there was something among the wood that did not add up. The contrast adjustment—and their experience in this type of analysis—allowed them to infer that there were packages that, due to their color and density, could be bricks of Cannabis sativa. While some agents thoroughly checked the documentation presented by the carrier, others conducted a more in-depth inspection of the cargo. Jackie the dog entered the scene and began barking and tearing at the straps, an unmistakable sign of the presence of narcotics. Faced with this situation, the gendarmes contacted the court and the federal prosecutor's office in Posadas. Due to the complexity of the search in the middle of the road, and with judicial authorization, the semi-trailer truck was transferred to Squadron 8. They detected that many of what appeared to be simply stacked slats were actually rectangular boxes. When the covers were removed, the illegal cargo was revealed: hundreds of “bricks” wrapped in beige nylon. According to reports, they counted 21 crates containing 9,361 packages of ‘pressed’ marijuana, the “star” product of Paraguay's illegal economy. A total of 7,418.912 kilos of drugs. Judge María Verónica Skanata ordered the seizure of the drugs and the semi-trailer truck, as well as the preventive arrest of the driver of the vehicle, who was held incommunicado and questioned, while the investigation continues to analyze the origin of the drugs and a possible link to the historic convoy that crossed Paraguay with 89 tons of cannabis on board without being stopped anywhere along the way."