Two Mexicans convicted in Antofagasta for operating methamphetamine laboratory in Chile
The Antofagasta Court found two Mexican citizens guilty of drug trafficking and manufacture. They entered the country from Manzanillo and operated a clandestine laboratory in the O'Higgins Region.
Antofagasta Court convicts two Mexicans for operating clandestine methamphetamine laboratory
The Oral Criminal Trial Court of Antofagasta convicted two Mexican citizens of drug trafficking and manufacture, according to latinus.us. The accused had entered Chile by sea from the port of Manzanillo, Colima.
The ruling resulted from a joint investigation by the Antofagasta Regional Prosecutor's Office, Carabineros from section OS7, and Customs. The authorities determined that both convicted men were part of a Mexican criminal organisation with a presence in several countries, directed by a leader in Mexico whose identity was not revealed.
The structure attempted to establish in Chilean territory a plaza dedicated to the reception, processing, synthesis, storage and marketing of methamphetamine crystals.
The two men were arrested in January 2025 during a joint operation by Carabineros and the Public Ministry on a plot of land in the Lolol sector, in the O'Higgins Region, where the clandestine laboratory intended for the synthesis and production of the substance was operating.
The Regional Prosecutor of Antofagasta, Juan Castro Bekios, praised the work of the agencies involved in the investigation. "We did not convict a nationality: a criminal structure that was proven guilty was convicted, whose route ran from the port of Manzanillo to a clandestine laboratory installed in the south of the country. And we did not pursue only the kilo: we dismantled the structure that moves it," Castro Bekios stated.
The prosecutor further clarified that the methamphetamine entered the country by sea, and emphasised that border defence also extends to the judicial sphere, through evidence that withstood the oral trial.
The specific sentences for both convicted individuals will be announced at a hearing scheduled for 16 November.
Source: Google News CL — Crime