Venezuelan captured in Bolivia for Argentina's largest MDMA seizure
Alex David Coronil Polanco was detained in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and handed over to Argentina at the Salvador Mazza–Yacuiba border crossing. He was linked to the seizure of 52 kg of MDMA in Zárate.
Fugitive handed over at Salta border crossing following historic synthetic drug seizure
A Venezuelan citizen wanted by Argentine justice was captured in Bolivia and transferred to the country through the Salvador Mazza–Yacuiba border crossing, eltribuno.com reported. The operation involved personnel from the Argentine Federal Police, the Anti-Drug Division of San Ramón de la Nueva Orán and the Salvador Mazza DUOF.
The detainee, identified as Alex David Coronil Polanco, had an active international arrest warrant. Interpol of the Bolivian Police arrested him in Santa Cruz de la Sierra; given that he had entered Bolivia illegally, the authorities of that country ordered his expulsion and transfer to the Argentine border.
Once migration procedures were completed, Coronil Polanco was placed at the disposal of a commission from the Anti-Narcotics Investigation Superintendent of the Argentine Federal Police, which assumed his custody and presented him before the courts.
Link to the Zárate seizure
The Venezuelan is named in the case investigating the entry into the country of 52 kilogrammes of maximum-purity MDMA—raw material for the production of ecstasy tablets—seized days earlier in the Buenos Aires town of Zárate. According to the investigation, he would have participated in the structure responsible for receiving the vehicle transporting the drugs and extracting the cargo hidden inside it, and would have been present in the vicinity of the Zárate Port during the operation.
The operation that enabled the seizure was carried out by the Argentine Federal Police and the General Customs Authority of the Tax Collection and Customs Control Agency (ARCA). Using non-intrusive inspection technology, they detected anomalies in the structure of a vehicle and found the packages containing the substance.
Based on the volume seized, authorities estimated that the cargo could have resulted in the production of approximately one million ecstasy tablets, making the case Argentina's largest synthetic drug seizure on record.
Transnational investigation
The case was initiated in March based on information provided by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and is aimed at a transnational criminal organisation dedicated to synthetic drug trafficking. It is under the charge of the National Court of Economic Affairs No. 2, with the involvement of the Narco-Criminality Prosecution Office (PROCUNAR).
Following the procedure in Zárate, a Mexican citizen, a Venezuelan and an Argentine had been detained. Other members of the organisation had international arrest warrants issued against them, including Coronil Polanco, now apprehended.
Source: Google News BO — Crime