Two Venezuelan nationals detained; goods seized in Santa Flora

Two Venezue­lan na­tion­als were ar­rest­ed and a quan­ti­ty of un­cus­tomed goods seized dur­ing a mo­bile pa­trol ex­er­cise in the San­ta Flo­ra dis­trict on Thurs­day.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers of the South-West­ern Di­vi­sion Pa­trol Unit stopped a sil­ver Nis­san Primera around 4:10 pm (on March 5, 2026) in the vicin­i­ty of a bar and restau­rant in San­ta Flo­ra.

Po­lice said they asked the ve­hi­cle’s oc­cu­pants—the dri­ver, a 28-year-old Venezue­lan na­tion­al of Quinam Road, Pe­nal; and the front seat pas­sen­ger, a 21-year-old Venezue­lan na­tion­al of Erin Beach—to pro­duce trav­el doc­u­ments.

Both men were un­able to pro­duce any doc­u­ments when re­quest­ed by of­fi­cers.

A search of the ve­hi­cle was con­duct­ed and of­fi­cers found items sus­pect­ed to be un­cus­tomed goods.

Po­lice said the items in­clud­ed quan­ti­ties of al­co­holic bev­er­ages, pep­per sauce, cloth­ing, footwear and a con­tain­er of cheese.

Both men were ar­rest­ed on sus­pi­cion of be­ing il­le­gal im­mi­grants.

The ve­hi­cle and the seized items were tak­en to the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion.

Po­lice said the items were placed in­to safe­keep­ing at the sta­tion.

Cus­toms of­fi­cials were con­tact­ed in re­la­tion to the goods seized dur­ing the ex­er­cise.

Po­lice said the pa­trol formed part of on­go­ing op­er­a­tions in the South-West­ern Di­vi­sion.