Man jailed for using women as drug mules at Uruguay prison

A man has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison for his role in a scheme that lured women with promises of domestic employment, only to force them into smuggling drugs into a prison. The convicted individual deceived his victims, transporting them from Montevideo to Ciudad del Plata.

Once housed in a property under the guise of their supposed job, the women were informed they could not leave. Their real task was to smuggle narcotics to inmates at Unit N°4 of the National Rehabilitation Institute in Santiago Vázquez, formerly known as Comcar. A van used to transport the victims to the penitentiary was confiscated.

The investigation revealed the man operated with his partner. He was found guilty by the court as "penally responsible for a crime of association to commit crimes, in conjunction with a crime of supplying narcotic substances and a crime of human trafficking." The court ordered him to serve five years and four months in penitentiary.

In a separate incident reported in the same article, a 24-year-old woman was fatally shot in the Piedras Blancas neighborhood of Montevideo. She was accompanied by a 57-year-old man who sustained leg injuries and another woman of the same age who was unharmed. Police responded to a shooting report around 5:47 AM. The injured woman was taken to a medical center and later died at the SMI sanatorium due to her severe injuries. The male victim is reported to be out of danger. Investigators believe the victims were walking when an assailant approached, fired shots, and fled the scene. The Prosecutor's Office of Homicides of 4th Turn is handling the ongoing investigation.