Dismantled a network of drug traffickers who introduced cocaine into containers through the Port of Algeciras
Joint investigation of the Civil Guard, National Police and the Tax Agency
A total of 4,844 kilos of this narcotic have been intervened, 43 vehicles, 87 real estate properties valued at 16 million euros, 4 vessels, one of them being 43 meters in length, 4 small arms, 2 shotguns and 1 silencer and 6 million euros in cash among other high-value effects
The criminal organization was based in Cádiz and Seville, from where it distributed huge quantities of drugs from Central and South America.
32 people have been arrested in our country during the three phases of the operation that began in 2017
Agents of the Civil Guard, the National Police and officials of the Tax Agency have dismantled a network of drug traffickers who introduced cocaine into containers through the Port of Algeciras. The criminal organization was based in Cadiz and Seville, from where it distributed huge quantities of drugs shipped in maritime containers in the Americas. 32 people have been arrested in our country in the course of the three phases of the operation that began in 2017. A total of 4,844 kilos of cocaine, 43 vehicles, 87 real estate properties valued at 16 million euros, 4 vessels One of them being 43 meters in length, 4 short weapons, 2 shotguns, 1 silencer and 6 million euros in cash, among other effects of great value. In the operation real estate properties have been immobilized for 16 million euros and 6 million euros have been intervened in cash.
Operation started in 2017
The beginning of the investigation dates back to the first quarter of 2017 when it became known of the existence of an organization suspected of introducing large consignments of cocaine through containers from South and Central America into the peninsula to be distributed once the different customs controls were overcome. .
Once the information in the possession of the three intervening agencies was analyzed, operative exploitation was coordinated in three phases, each of which has attacked the different structures that made up the organization until achieving the complete dismantling of both its operational structure and its structure. the directive and financial.
In the first phase, the investigations led the researchers to an entrepreneur based in Barcelona and owner of a corporate network in Spain and Brazil, which facilitated the establishment of contacts for the negotiation at the origin of important items of cocaine that were being introduced into the territory. Spanish through the Port of Algeciras. The close control exercised over the researched and his environment managed to detect at the end of December 2017 suspicious movements of several vehicles between the aforementioned port and two industrial warehouses in Marbella. The agents intercepted a van that turned out to contain 1,100 kilograms of cocaine in numerous packages, in view of which the registry was extended to the industrial warehouses, where another 2,400 kg were located. and there were five arrests. It is one of the largest seizures of cocaine made in Spain outside the port area.
Criminal network located in America and several Spanish provinces
The second operational phase was marked by the increase in precautions, already high, of the rest of the investigated. Coming to the paralysis of the activities of the organization in the months following the arrests made. The researchers focused their efforts on discovering the functioning of the peripheral structure of the organization, both of the negotiators and representatives abroad and of their distributors in the peninsula. The criminal network turned out to be strongly delocalised among many countries of Central and South America as well as by a multitude of Spanish provinces, among which the real estate network that they had in Malaga, Cádiz, Madrid and Seville stands out, being mostly in the Andalusian capital where the drug until its final distribution.
Once all the members of the organization were identified at the beginning of January 2019, by order of the Central Court of Instruction number 5 of the National Court, the operational execution of the second investigative phase was carried out. The arrest of 18 people and the practice of 26 records in which they seized more than five million euros in cash, 90 kilograms of cocaine, one of heroin, five firearms, a luxury vessel of 43 meters of Length and numerous evidences that allowed the imputation of the detainees for drug trafficking, belonging to a criminal organization and money laundering.
Stopping the ringleader
The months dedicated to the investigation of the criminal group allowed to establish a clear composition of its organizational chart, to delimit the roles of all its members and to clearly define the different structures that made it up. Finally, repairing the framework dedicated to extracting illicit merchandise from port facilities and transporting it to the various warehouses and security homes established mainly in the provinces of Malaga and Seville.
Within this branch of the organization stood out the figure of a Cadiz businessman based in Sotogrande, a key player in the distribution and logistics of illegal activities. At the beginning of March this year, this leader was arrested along with eight other members, during the ten registers carried out in the province of Cádiz, specifically in Sotogrande, Algeciras and Alcalá de los Gazules. A total of 1,254 kilograms of cocaine were intervened, more than eight hundred thousand euros in cash, a firearm, a boat, numerous high-end vehicles and proceeded to block 17 buildings with a value of more than six million euros and 103 vehicles, under the ownership of the detainees and the numerous companies they managed.
Of the 32 detainees in the framework of this investigation, 25 have been remanded in custody.
