Seven people were detained in Paraguay on Saturday for allegedly attempting to transport roughly 2,900 kilogrammes (6,393 pounds) of cocaine to Europe.
According to officials, the narcotics were confiscated last year at Paraguay’s largest river port. The consignment was routed through Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Antwerp, Belgium, on its way to Israel.
Until 3,400 kilograms of cocaine were discovered disguised in sacks of sugar in the central city of Fernando de la Mora earlier this year, it was the highest amount of cocaine ever detected in the country.
According to police, the mastermind has been apprehended.
Miguel Servin, a businessman from Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital, was arrested as the mastermind behind the country’s second-largest cocaine bust.
Servin, who was detained on Saturday, is accused of being “the leader and financier” of the drug smuggling organisation, according to the National Anti-Drugs Secretariat (SENAD).
According to a SENAD official, he was “in charge of arranging and managing the transit of large quantities of cocaine by river from our country to various continents via cargo containers transported through international trade activities.”
Servin has ties to Brazil’s most powerful criminal organisation, the First Command of the Capital, which has 20,000 members. Servin’s hometown of Pedro Juan Caballero is also home to the group.
Who else has been detained?
Servin’s wife and daughter, imprisoned in the northern town of Pedro Juan Caballero, are accused of laundering drug trafficking funds, according to the case’s lead prosecutor, Elva Caceres.
The others that were apprehended were engaged in the cocaine’s delivery to Europe. A 20-year-old player was among them, according to a police spokeswoman, who gave “logistical assistance in the criminal organisation.”
Until Saturday’s arrests, Cristian Turrini, an ex-director of a public television station, was the sole individual jailed in connection with the drug smuggling enterprise. He was arrested and accused of narcotics possession and international drug trafficking.
Police believe the narcotics are processed in Paraguay before being transported internationally by criminal organisations.
