Overview
- Brian Walter Bilbao, wanted since 2023 with a provincial reward, was detained by Gendarmería before dawn near Pergamino/Exaltación de la Cruz after an aircraft landing drew a federal interdiction.
- Authorities intercepted a pickup that had collected packages from a light plane; some outlets report roughly 400 kilos of cocaine while others cite 700, pending official weighing and chain‑of‑custody checks.
- A separate Cessna 210 found crashed near Arequito contained a bundle of cocaine; investigators are testing whether that flight was part of the same route, with reports of about 100 kilos cited by La Nación.
- The action falls under the long‑running federal case Cosecha Blanca, which targets a network that used low‑altitude flights, clandestine strips and ground pickups to move cocaine into central Argentina.
- PROCUNAR and federal prosecutor Matías Scilabra are directing follow‑up searches and forensic work, building on 2025 arrests of alleged operatives including Waldo Bilbao and pilot Pablo Javier Raynaud.