Nicaraguan authorities seized nearly a million dollars allegedly linked to drug trafficking, and arrested three people who were transporting them in two trucks, near the border with Honduras, the National Police reported Thursday.
The money was found hidden in the two vehicles during a police inspection carried out in the municipality of Palacagüina, department of Madriz, on the border with Honduras, 194 kilometers north of Managua, said the second head of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, Victoriano Ruiz, in statements to the media.
In total, the authorities found hidden 34 packages wrapped with adhesive tape inside four backpacks that were in the vans, totaling $921,500, he said. The detainees, who were driving the vehicles with Nicaraguan license plates, were identified as Jymer Antonio Marchena Beltrán, of 22 years old, Marcelo Alexander Villareyna, 35, and Luis Antonio Torrez Lacayo, 42. The seized money and trucks, as well as the clothing, bibs and palm groves of the detainees, were applied the Scintrex Trace technique, giving positive results. for cocaine, the police chief said.
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The detainees and the evidence were forwarded to the competent authorities for the prosecution of the case. Nicaragua is geographically located in a corridor of high drug trafficking, which is produced in South America and then transferred to North America, where mainly the Mexican cartels and the largest consumers reside.
The Nicaraguan Police carried out the operation as part of the permanent strategy called “Wall of Containment”, whose objective is to prevent the circulation of drugs in population centers, with the cooperation of the rest of the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, the United States, Mexico and Russia.
