Uruguay: Eight people who sold drugs arrested for “delivery”

Police in Salto, a department in northern Uruguay, arrested eight people who were linked to drug trafficking in the northern capital (also called Salto). The criminals operated in the mode of delivery, carrying drugs that were distributed at different points of sale in different areas of the city.

Carlos Melo, the spokesman for the Salto Police Headquarters, said that the departmental Anti-Drug Brigade had been carrying out various surveillance tasks for this case for three months, said Underlinado.

“The Brigade has already been working in that area, conducting surveillance and also investigating consumers who are observed in that area,” he said. In this regard, the Police arrested a total of eight people, among whom four were women, three were men and one was a minor adolescent who is currently under the dependencies and custody of the State.

According to Melo, the police were able to seize illegal narcotics, specifically based pasta. “In Salto, the mode of delivery is quite established, which (criminals) divide drugs in mouths and go out to sell on motorcycles or on foot in certain places in the center of the capital,” he added.

More cases of drug delivery

In Uruguay, this type of drug delivery is not so strange. Several cases have been recorded, especially in the country's capital, Montevideo, which denounce this type of trafficking. According to police experts, this happens when drug traffickers look for other options to set up a business, since they have less chance of being caught because “customers” come to their mouths.

Perhaps the most recent and largest example is when in June 2021, eight people were charged with selling drugs through a delivery within the framework of Operation Cuervo. According to the data obtained by the police, the drug mouth was located in the peripheral neighborhood of Montevideo, Villa Española.

After an extensive investigation and indoor surveillance by the investigative police, it was found that the drug mouth worked on the move, taking the doses to different parts of Montevideo on different motorcycles.

During the raids, the police were able to seize five vehicles, 300 grams of cocaine, more than 150,000 Uruguayan pesos (more than $3,500), $8,000 and two weapons.

In October 2019, it was already reported by the Police that this new strategy of drug dealers was booming. They called it, instead of delivery, “home delivery”. Around that date, several drug outlets were closed in downtown Montevideo and police intelligence was in the footsteps of a drug group that distributed doses in this way. In fact, at that time, several complaints by the residents of Ciudad Vieja, the neighbourhood, of this type of sale were studied.

Until that time in 2019, eight drug outlets had been closed in the area, three of them directly in Ciudad Vieja and the rest in the Center. Although most of the buildings were bricked up, and it was not established that criminals would re-enter the site, neighbors reported strange movements. According to what was reported, they saw that someone was arriving on a motorcycle, who did not belong to traditional delivery services, and after a quick delivery he left the area.

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