La Paz, Oct 2 (IANS/EFE) Bolivian anti-narcotics authorities have seized $1 million in cash as drug traffickers threw it from a small plane in Santa Cruz province.
The operation, carried out by FELCN counternarcotics squad, took place last Sunday in the town of Pozo del Tigre, at some 140 km from Santa Cruz city, Interior Minister Carlos Romero told media.
The officers detected a clandestine landing strip where a person was signalling to an airplane flying overhead, from which a white bag containing the cash was thrown.
Some of the bills bore the seal of a Paraguayan bank, possibly indicating that the drug trafficking gang had connections in Paraguay, the minster added.
Three Bolivian nationals have arrested besides the money, agents appropriated two vehicles, a shotgun, a rifle, a machine gun and three mobile phones, a communique from the minstry said.
Romero noted that the money confiscated was turned over to prosecutors in Santa Cruz, while police launched an investigation to find the other members of the drug trafficking gang.
Last week the FELCN seized, also in Santa Cruz, 315 kilos (690 pounds) of cocaine that was being shipped to neighbouring Brazil, by shooting at a small plane and forcing it to land right after takeoff.