The undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior –current interim minister–, Guillermo Maciel said that a “new blow to drug trafficking” was dealt with the Titanes operation, where eleven raids were carried out, eleven people were also arrested and 265,550 kg of cocaine in bricks that was going to be sent to Europe was seized. The portfolio reported that the seized drug in the European territory it would have a sale value of more than 9 million euros.
The operation began in April of this year after the General Directorate for the Suppression of Illicit Drug Trafficking investigated a criminal organization made up of Uruguayans and Colombians – some of them with criminal records. The group was dedicated the entry of large shipments of narcotic drugs to Uruguay for collection, conditioning and subsequent shipment to Europethrough the contamination of wood exports, reported the Ministry of the Interior.
Ministry of Interior
240 “bricks” type wrappers with cocaine
After having the drugs in a house in the Cerro Norte neighborhood, the foreigners put the drug in the timber that was later shipped through the port of Montevideo to Europe. They had the complicity of a timber exporting company.
Two of the Colombians had criminal records for a 2010 operation where 25 kg of cocaine were seized.
Raids and arrests
After it was confirmed this Monday that the criminal group had contaminated the woodsindicated the portfolio, the Organized Crime judge, Adriana Chamsarian, was asked to make eleven searches and eleven arrests. Eight were made in Montevideo, two in Canelones and one in the city of Rivera.
In one of the raided houses in Cerro Norte they detained five people – four Colombians – they were putting the cocaine inside the wood. In the other ten raids, six more people were arrested.
Between these there was a businessman linked to a trucking company, of great purchasing power, according to the ministry, and who lived in a well-known private neighborhood of Canelones. He had been jailed in 2012 for an operation where 323 kg of cocaine were seized.
Another had a criminal record for theft, assistance to drug trafficking and had been required since February 2022 linked to the Pegaso operation, where 1362 kg of cocaine were seized.
Ministry of Interior
The vehicles seized in the Titanes operation
In Operation Titanes, led by the 1st Turn Narcotics Prosecutor, Mónica Ferrero, eleven people were arrested and seized:
- 240 “brick” type wrappers with a total weight of 265,550 kg of cocaine and a value on the European market of more than nine million euros.
- two revolvers
- 33 ammunition of different calibers
- A Glock model 17 pistol with magazine belonging to the Ministry of the Interior, which was required
- A shotgun
- three cars
- two vans
- three vans
- Electronics devices
- Documentation
- $6,711
- $U 274,646
- AR$39,120
- R$1,489
