Bolivia’s customs service said it authorized none of the openings of 54 containers of allegedly drug-soaked Bolivian hardwood seized at Chilean ports, directly contradicting the Arica prosecutor’s account to the court, according to Wood Central. The letter, from Bolivia’s customs agent at the port of Arica, was filed by defense lawyers for eight of the 23 exporters accused in the case.
Regional Prosecutor Mario Carrera Guerrero told a hearing last month that “none of the containers [were] opened by Chile; all were opened by Bolivian customs at the request of our National Customs Service officers,” citing the 1904 free-transit treaty between the two countries. Five days earlier, Bolivian customs agent Álvaro Cardozo Segurondo had written that his agency “did not issue authorization or take part in the openings described.” Chile’s own customs rules allow inspection of Bolivian transit cargo flagged for drugs, but only in coordination with the Bolivian customs agency.
Chilean lawyer Juan Ignacio Ipinza has argued that the treaty never ceded Chile’s criminal jurisdiction over its own port, though he conceded that much of the timber was burned before the defense could obtain comparison analyses.
Chile announced the seizure in July, claiming 108 tons of cocaine and ketamine had been impregnated into 1.080 metric tons of ipé, cumaru and other species. Bolivia disputed the findings, a judge halted further burning pending a retest, and containers tested negative in the United States and four other countries. Arica’s health service had already burned all 48 containers held at that port between August and October, and the judge noted it failed to send destruction records to prosecutors within the required five days.
Carrera maintained that there is “nothing irregular” in the investigation, and Chile’s Public Health Institute has stood by its finding of substances in more than 300 samples. Prosecutors were due to propose a replacement laboratory for the retest at a hearing last Thursday.
Read the full article here.
