Two Bolivian pilots sentenced to 10 years in prison for trafficking 364 kilograms of cocaine in Argentina
Juan Pablo Quinteros Peredo and Henry Álvaro Mercado Cuajera were sentenced in Salta after crashing a small aircraft loaded with drugs. The cargo could have poisoned more than two million Argentinians.
Bolivian aircraft carrying 364 kilograms of cocaine crashes in Salta: ten-year prison sentence for pilots
The Federal Criminal Oral Tribunal No. 2 of Salta sentenced two Bolivian pilots to ten years in prison for transporting 364 kilograms of cocaine from Bolivia to the Argentine town of Rosario de la Frontera. According to El Deber, the condemned men are Juan Pablo Quinteros Peredo and Henry Álvaro Mercado Cuajera, declared co-perpetrators of the crime of smuggling the importation of narcotic drugs intended for commercialisation.
The sentence was handed down by judge Gabriela Catalano acting alone, within the framework of a full agreement promoted by general prosecutor Eduardo Villalba and assistant prosecutor Florencia Altamirano.
The accident that triggered the investigation
On 4 November 2025, the aircraft registered as CP-3167 and flying a Bolivian flag attempted to land at the property "El Cóndor o Laguna Negra", situated alongside provincial route No. 3, a few kilometres from a fixed Gendarmería post in El Naranjo. The aircraft struck a barrier of thorny bushes—known locally as churquis—and collided with a motor vehicle in which three men were waiting to unload the drugs.
Upon arrival at the scene, personnel from the National Gendarmerie found the white and red aircraft partially covered in mud and embedded in vegetation. In the cabin they found traces of blood and three hessian bags containing 136 kilograms of cocaine, packaged in 42 parcels marked "Prada Milano". Next to the aircraft was a burnt-out Volkswagen Gol Trend. The gendarmes also recovered a motorbike registration document in the name of one of the accomplices, a satellite antenna and fuel containers apparently intended to refuel the aircraft.
The following day, during an extended search with the presence of the general prosecutor and assistant prosecutor, Julián Darío Mansilla was arrested—he had reported the theft of his vehicle to the Antillas police station, the vehicle turning out to be the car burnt-out next to the aircraft—and subsequently Jonathan Alejandro Gómez, who was driving a Chevrolet S10 pick-up truck. The operation allowed five further bags containing an additional 228 kilograms of cocaine to be unearthed, buried in a plot of land near the crash site. The total amount seized came to 364 kilograms.
Aggravating factors and seizure
Judge Catalano classified the crime as aggravated by the involvement of three or more people, the use of an aircraft and the flight along unauthorised air routes with landing at clandestine locations. Identification of the aircraft proved impossible to trace due to the absence of serial numbers on the fuselage and engine.
"We are at a superior level here," Catalano said during the hearing, and added that "the drug could have poisoned more than two million Argentinians". The judge dismissed the arguments of the pilots, who claimed to have acted out of necessity due to the economic crisis in Bolivia: she held that their statements were merely attempts at justification and that their intention to profit was evident.
In addition to the prison sentence, the judgement imposed a special five-year disqualification from engaging in commerce and for twice the length of the sentence from holding public office. The aircraft CP-3167 was seized and handed over to the Aeronautical Technical Education School No. 3,144 "Captain Marcelo Lotufo" for educational purposes.
The accomplices on the ground, already sentenced
The pilots' sentence adds to penalties previously imposed on the three men who were waiting for the cargo on the ground. On 10 August, the federal judge of Guarantees No. 2 of Salta, Diego Anzorreguy, approved a full agreement and sentenced Mansilla to five years and eleven months in prison and Gómez to five years, both as necessary accomplices to the crime. Jorge Alberto Cuellar received four years in prison as a secondary accomplice. In that ruling the seizure of the Chevrolet S10 pick-up truck used to transport part of the drugs to the location where it was buried was also ordered.
The investigation, handled by Procunar NOA
Assistant prosecutor Altamirano explained that the investigation was handled by the Narcocriminality Prosecutors Office (Procunar) NOA, which intervened on the basis of a communication from the National Gendarmerie about the aerial accident on 4 November. Personnel from the Dangerous Drugs Division of the Salta Police also provided prior information: days before the operation they had already received a report identifying Mansilla, Gómez and Cuellar as members of a drug-trafficking organisation dedicated to transporting drugs in large quantities.
Source: El Deber