29 members of three clans dedicated to the sale of drugs arrested in Lleida
The three clans functioned independently although they respected each other, bought drugs from each other and sometimes collaborated to carry out criminal activity.
They supplied cocaine, heroin and marijuana from Balaguer (Lleida) to other traffickers in the province and even to other northern European countries. The leaders of the organization led a high standard of living, without having any type of work activity
The investigation has had various phases and a total of 29 people have been arrested, 23 have entered prison
The Civil Guard and Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested 29 people in Balaguer (Lleida) belonging to three clans dedicated to the sale and distribution of drugs.
The beginning of the investigation is at the end of 2019, after agents from the two police forces agreed in the investigation of various clans dedicated to drug trafficking that operated from flats located in Balaguer.
At first, Mossos d'Esquadra intervened about 100 grams of cocaine of a purity greater than 85%. That made the investigators work with the hypothesis that this criminal group distributed the drug on a large scale. For its part, the Civil Guard was investigating a person involved in a previous operation in parallel.
With the investigation advanced, Mossos d'Esquadra places a man and his brothers at the head of the group and confirms that the person who was guarding and guarding the drugs was someone trusted by the clan. In addition, this investigated carried out the transactions and contacted potential buyers.
At a later stage, the agents were able to establish the status quo and hierarchies of the first clan dedicated to cocaine trafficking, although they also did it for hashish and marijuana. The researchers also confirmed the existence of two other groups among which there is mutual respect.
Trafficking, mainly cocaine, was carried out at all levels: acquisition from large suppliers, sale of significant quantities per kilogram to other traffickers, local distribution to Lleida through small traffickers and retail sales, as well as storage and handling. of the substance apart from cutting it to extract a higher yield.
Despite the fact that the three clans operated from Balaguer and had the same scope of distribution, their relationship was one of cooperation. In this way, when the leaders of the main clan were in prison, those in charge of looking after their criminal interests were those of another clan. If, within the framework of the mobility restrictions caused by the pandemic, one of the groups suffered to supply itself, those who had found alternative means of supplying it, provided it.
Part of the drugs acquired by one of the clans came from the province of Almería, where entries, searches and two arrests were also carried out by the Civil Guard.
On May 25, the first phase of exploitation of the device was carried out with 18 entries and searches, 15 in Balaguer and three in Lleida, in which more than 200 police officers participated. 18 people were arrested, 13 of them entered prison. The agents found various amounts of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, in addition to substances to adulterate the drug, precision scales and a significant amount of cash.
Those investigated had a high level of professionalism and degree of specialization, especially when it came to adopting drug surveillance and concealment measures. The organization used sophisticated "holes", specially enabled for the transport of narcotic substances.
Likewise, one of the roles of the organization was the distribution of vacuum packed marijuana to various northern European countries.
In the total of the investigation against these three family clans, about 55 kilos of marijuana, 20 of cocaine and 12 of heroin have been intervened, in addition to 1,200 kilos of MDMA, 131 marijuana plants in indoor cultivation and hashish in smaller quantities . The value of the seized drug in the illicit market would amount to 1,350,000 euros. The total value of the money involved is 314,010 euros.
The operation has been carried out by the civil guards of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police (UOPJ) of Lleida together with mossos d'esquadra of the Division of Criminal Investigation (DIC) of the Regió Policial de Ponent, of the Unitat d ' Investigation of the Balaguer police station.
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