Media caption Watch: The money was laid out by Bolivian authorities 
 
 Suspected members of a drug trafficking gang in Bolivia have thrown a bag containing more than $1m (£615,000) from a low-flying plane. 
 
 The cash was supposed to be collected by other gang members on the ground in eastern Santa Cruz province, said Interior Minister Carlos Romero. 
 
 But they missed the target and the bag was seized by Bolivian anti-drugs police, who later made several arrests. 
 
 Bolivia is one of the world's top three cocaine producers. 
 
 The authorities say the money - in US dollar bills of various denominations - was wrapped with a seal from a bank in neighbouring Paraguay. 
 
 They believe it was going to be used either to build a cocaine production centre or to set up a fake commercial enterprise in Bolivia. 
 
 "Three Bolivian citizens have been detained in the operation," said Mr Romero. 
 
 Guns and vehicles were also seized near the town of Rincon del Tigre. 
 
 Bolivian police had been monitoring the gang, which is believed to be well organised and with links to several countries. 
 
 Peru, Bolivia and Colombia are the world's biggest coca leaf and cocaine producers, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 
 
 Coca leaf production is legal in small amounts in Bolivia, where it is used to alleviate the effects of the high altitude. But the production of cocaine is banned. 

 By Staff Reporter, Oct 03, 2013 02:37 PM EDT 
 
 At a clandestine airstrip near the Bolivian border with Brazil, Bolivian police drug squads saw a man standing on the runway waving at an approaching low-flying plane. They waited and watched, then as bag after bag tumbled from it to the airstrip below, the agents emerged from their hiding place and seized the bags: 26 in total, which police say they later found to be holding combined $1 million. That cash, Interior Minister Carlos Romero said in a statement on Wednesday, was intended for collection by drug traffickers on the ground, who would then use it either to finance the construction of a cocaine production center or to set up a fake business for laundering the money in that remote province of Santa Cruz. 
 
 "The plane threw white bags containing bundles of money ... 26 different cuts with a total value of $1 million. The plane, which could not be identified, continued its flight with destination unknown," read the police statement, according to Fox News. The interior minister said that three people who had been waiting on the ground to pick up the bags had been arrested in connection with the operation. Several guns, phones vehicles were also seized by police. Romero heralded the seizures as a "major blow" to drug trafficking in a country which remains one of the top three cocaine producers in the world, along with Peru and Colombia. The production of the coca leaf, long used as a mild stimulant in the high-altitude towns in the Bolivian Andes, is legal in relatively small quantities, but the cocaine which is processed from those leaves is still illegal. 
 
 Bolivian traffickers are finding an growing market for cocaine in neighboring Brazil. According to Fox, Bolivian anti-drug teams confiscated about 10 tons of cocaine from gangs in the remote eastern region near the 800-mile Brazilian border, many of whom had links to drug gangs in Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina. In this case, the money dropped by the plane was in US dollar bills of various denominations. It was also wrapped with a seal from a bank in Paraguay. 
 
 The Brazilian border is increasingly becoming the focus of anti-drug law enforcement operations outside of Bolivian territory as well. The Amazonian Trapezoid, where Peru, Colombia and Brazil intersect, is an especially key bit of territory for drug (and arms) smuggling, as the isolated jungle terrain and lack of security presence make transportation of contraband easy for groups based there. 
 
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– Kind of a risky way to pay people, isn't it? Alleged drug dealers ran into trouble last weekend by throwing more than $1 million from a low-flying plane in Bolivia, the BBC reports. Police saw the whole thing, arrested three Bolivian nationals on the ground, and grabbed the bag packed with US dollars. Interior Minister Carlos Romero said the money would have funded a new cocaine production center or money-laundering business, reports the Latin Times. Those in the plane got away scot-free, but Romero called the seizure a "major blow" to Bolivian drug traffickers. The country remains one of the world's top three cocaine producers, behind only Peru and Colombia, as Bolivia's drug gangs exploit a growing market in neighboring Brazil. But the trafficking has drawn attention: Just last week Bolivian police shot down a plane and confiscated 690 pounds of cocaine being sent off to Brazil, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.