Chilean customs and law enforcement agencies seized just over 1,000 tons of wood chemically impregnated with illicit drugs at the ports of Arica, Valparaíso and San Antonio—the largest drug seizure in the country's history, according to Chile's National Customs Service. A six-month investigation turned up 45 containers of treated wood, with officials estimating that 10–20% of each shipment consisted of illicit substances, mainly cocaine and ketamine.
Chile Aduanas Customs
Investigators described the method as a chemical impregnation of forest products bound for export, engineered to slip past conventional inspection and requiring specialized labs to later extract the drugs. The shipments originated as timber from Bolivia, with Chile serving as a logistics platform for cargo headed to markets including Germany, Belgium, France, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom and Mexico.
“This seizure of approximately 108 tons of drugs, primarily cocaine and ketamine, is equivalent to $8.3 billion. To give you a point of comparison, that's equivalent to 100 years of our budget,” Director General of Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine, Vice Admiral Arturo Oxley said in a statement.
Investigators estimated that the drugs seized through this procedure prevented the potential distribution of more than 584 million illicit doses.
This is far from the only time drugs have been hidden in wood shipments. In 2024 Bolivian authorities seized a record amount of cocaine hidden in wood flooring tiles, and in 2017 Australian authorities found $680 million in meth hidden in boards that appeared to be engineered wood flooring.
