Peru police arrested Nuevo Chimbote police chief Freddy Tuesta in the northern state of Ancash with over 119 kilos of cocaine on Saturday.
The police chief of the Buenos Aires district in Nuevo Chimbote was pulled over by narcotics agents while driving the cocaine in suitcases to a beach in Casma province on Saturday night. Tuesta was arrested along with two other men from another car used in the transport.
Galvez said that Tuesta provided security for an international drug trafficking gang. Cocaine produced in Peru’s Alto Huallaga river valley is transported over the Andes mountains to Chimbote, where it is smuggled out of the fishing hub’s seaports.
“The Ancash coast is used as part of a drug corridor,” Ancash police general Juan Galvez told Chimbote en Linea. “The 119 kilograms of cocaine that was seized from the New Chimbote police chief was going to be taken by small boats from Tortugas beach into international waters, to be transferred to larger boats bound for Mexico.”
Peru 21 reports that Lima narcotics agents and the DEA obtained telephone recordings implicating Tuesta in drug trafficking. The agents had been following Tuesta for two weeks before arresting him on Saturday.
Tuesta will be discharged from Peru’s police force in a maximum of five days. He faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
The Santa and Casma provinces of Ancash, home to Chimbote and Nuevo Chimbote respectively, have been under martial law since December due to wave of political assassinations, extortion and murder-for-hire. Lima’s port district, Callao, has also been under martial law over the same period.
Sources
Detienen comisario de Nuevo Chimbote con 109 kilos de clorhidrato de cocaína (Andina)
Precisan que comisario de Nuevo Chimbote fue detenido con 119 kilos 650 gramos de droga (Andina)
Comisario de Nuevo Chimbote sería sentenciado 35 años de cárcel por narcotráfico (Chimbote en Linea)
Comisario detenido con 109 kilos de cocaína será expulsado de la Policía Nacional (Peru 21)
Comisario de Nuevo Chimbote cae con 119 kilos de droga en Casma (El Comercio)
Amplían por 45 días más estado de emergencia en Santa y Casma (El Comercio)