Chile's Public Prosecutor's Office has confirmed the largest drug seizure in the country's history. A six-month investigation across three ports – Arica, Valparaíso and San Antonio – uncovered 45 container shipments of Bolivian hardwood sawn timber in which 108 tonnes of drugs had been hidden. The drugs – cocaine and ketamine – had been dissolved and pressure-injected directly into the wood fibres. The shipment's value is estimated at around US$8.3 billion, with the drugs destined for various markets around the world, from Germany all the way to New Zealand.
A smuggling method that fools law enforcement
The criminals did not hide packages among the timber or in false compartments – they worked the drugs directly into the wood itself. The process closely mimicked industrial wood preservation treatment. The timber was first kiln-dried, after which a chemical solution was forced deep into the fibres under vacuum and pressure. According to the investigative outlet Mongabay, this method allows the drugs to bypass port scanners and go undetected even by trained sniffer dogs. Mario Carrera, prosecutor for the Arica and Parinacota region, said that recovering the drugs would require complex chemical processes in specialised laboratories.
From January to April this year, investigators recorded 32 such shipments, traced back to northern Bolivia, mainly the Pando department in the Amazon region. The smuggling involved timber of two species in total – tajibo (ipe) and almendrillo (kumaru), which have been listed as protected species under CITES Appendix II since late 2024. The total weight of the seized timber was 1,080 tonnes, and the quantity of drugs it contained is equivalent to roughly 584 million doses. This is a staggering volume that could have caused immense harm to people all over the world.
A “screen” of legal documents, and international raids
The investigation established that the goods were shipped by 15 officially and legally registered Bolivian companies engaged in legal timber exports. This allowed the shipments to cross borders unhindered. Following the major blow to the drug trafficking network, Bolivia's Public Prosecutor's Office has launched a large-scale operation, carrying out at least 50 raids on sawmills and warehouses across three departments of the country. Pedro Colanzi, president of Bolivia's Forestry Chamber (Camara Forestal de Bolivia), expressed astonishment that industry representatives learned of the incident only from the press, not through official channels. Colanzi demanded an immediate independent international investigation to identify and punish those truly responsible. It should be noted that Bolivia's timber export volumes have suffered a sharp decline, falling even below the low point recorded during the Covid-19 period. In the last quarter alone, losses have exceeded US$16 million. One of the key reasons is the Narcomaderas scandal described above, with dozens of timber containers now detained in Chilean ports. Bolivia's forestry sector is also facing a major problem in the form of a logistics breakdown caused by a persistent diesel fuel shortage.
The Narcomaderas case reflects a growing global trend in which international drug cartels exploit both the illegal timber trade and the cover of legitimate forestry operations. The US Department of Justice currently ranks illegal timber trafficking as the third most profitable form of transnational crime in the world, generating turnover worth billions of US dollars.