Chilean authorities have announced the largest drug seizure in the country’s history, uncovering 108 tonnes of cocaine and ketamine hidden inside timber shipments that originated in Bolivia.

Investigators say criminal organizations used a sophisticated process to chemically impregnate cocaine and ketamine into wooden planks, making the drugs extremely difficult to detect, even with scanners and trained drug-sniffing dogs.

The six-month investigation led to the discovery of 45 contaminated shipping containers at the Chilean ports of Arica, Valparaíso and San Antonio. According to prosecutors, the timber had been shipped from several regions of Bolivia before being destined for markets in Europe, North America, Africa and the Caribbean.

Authorities estimate the drugs seized had an international street value of more than US$8.3 billion.

The investigation has also raised environmental concerns. Prosecutors believe the operation relied on timber sourced from Bolivia’s Amazon region, with experts estimating millions of trees may have been harvested to support the trafficking network.

Following the discovery, Bolivian authorities carried out raids at sawmills in Pando, Santa Cruz, Beni, La Paz and Cochabamba, seizing documents, wood samples and electronic equipment as investigators work to determine which companies may have been linked to the operation.

Officials stressed that the timber companies involved were legally registered, with investigators now trying to determine whether criminal groups infiltrated legitimate businesses or whether company officials knowingly participated.

While this is the largest case uncovered to date, authorities say it is far from the first. Similar methods using drug-impregnated wood have been detected repeatedly over the past two decades, but never on this scale.

The investigation remains ongoing in both Chile and Bolivia as authorities attempt to dismantle what appears to be one of the most sophisticated drug trafficking operations ever uncovered in South America.