Operation Tortilla culminates with 64 detainees for drug trafficking and money laundering in Campo de Gibraltar

The Civil Guard, with the collaboration of Europol, has seized from the organization eight tons of hashish, six boats and 16 vehicles and among the goods, seized accounts and effects whose value amounts to three million euros

Known as the Clan de los Pinchos, they had a dry dock in Palmones (Cádiz) where they guarded the narcolanchas

The dismantled organization introduced between three and six tons of hashish in Spain monthly

The Civil Guard has dismantled an organization dedicated to hashish drug trafficking in the provinces of Malaga and Cádiz. After more than a year of investigations, the Tortilla operation has culminated in the arrest of 64 people accused of drug trafficking, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization.

The one known as the Pinchos clan operated on the coasts of Malaga and Cádiz, although the bulk of the organization was located in the Campo de Gibraltar. There, the Civil Guard has even found a dry dock for narcolanchas in one of the searches carried out in Palmones (Cádiz). Six of these vessels have been seized, in addition to 16 vehicles.
As a result of these searches, the Civil Guard has also seized eight tons of hashish. The dismantled organization introduced into our country between 3,000 and 6,000 kilos of this drug per month.
The first cache was intercepted by the agents in the place known as Catalaraje, in Estepona (Malaga). There, the Civil Guard detained the first six members of the organization and managed to seize almost three thousand kilos of hashish.

Change of strategy

The investigators continue the investigations and verify how in later caches the leaders change the way of landing the drug under pressure from the Civil Guard.
In a second intervened cache, the organization made several landings in areas difficult to access from land, dividing the cargo, to avoid gambling in a single point on the coast.
On another occasion, the clan chooses to make two simultaneous caches using two fast boats. They also change the landing area, arriving at the same time in the provinces of Huelva, Cádiz and Málaga.
Despite all the variations of the modus operandi that the organization uses to get hashish into the Peninsula, the Civil Guard seizes eight tons of hashish from the organization in four caches.
On the other hand, the investigators detect operations of laundering and recycling of capital from drug trafficking. For this, they acquired the nautical equipment necessary to carry out the illegal activities from a company of one of the components of the organization, the administrators being their own parents.
To make payments for said nautical equipment (engines, electronic media, nautical equipment) they used as front men people with little or no economic capacity, in some cases in a state of marginalization.
The value of what was seized from this organization amounts to three million euros, including boats, vehicles, movable and immovable property, as well as the seizure of its bank accounts.
250 civil guards from the Algeciras Command, Air Service, Rapid Action Group, Reserve and Security Group, as well as CCON and OCON participated in the operation of the operation.

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