Joint operation of the Tax Agency, the National Police, the National Police of Colombia, the American HSI and the authorities of Ecuador

• The investigation has allowed the complete dismantling of an international criminal organization dedicated to cocaine trafficking, and the arrest of its seven members.
• In the first shipment, which arrived at the port of Barcelona, the drugs were found in a container carrying bags of ceramic glue; Just a month later, a second shipment was made, this time to the port of Valencia, with the narcotic substance hidden at the base of a container of bananas.
• As a result of the searches carried out, more than 80,000 euros in cash, three vehicles and nine mobile phones have been seized, some of them with encrypted communications.

May 25, 2023.- Customs Surveillance Officials of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with agents of the National Police, the Anti-Narcotics Directorate of the National Police of Colombia, the Homeland American Security Investigations and Ecuadorian authorities have seized more than 1,200 kilos of cocaine hidden in three maritime containers from South America. The investigation has allowed the complete dismantling of an international criminal organization dedicated to cocaine trafficking, and the arrest of its seven members.

In the first shipment, which arrived at the port of Barcelona, the drugs were found in a container carrying bags of ceramic glue. Just a month later, a second shipment occurred, this time to the port of Valencia, with the narcotic substance hidden at the base of a container of bananas. As a result of the searches carried out, more than 80,000 euros in cash, three vehicles and nine mobile phones have been seized, some of them with encrypted communications.

The investigation began at the beginning of this year thanks to international cooperation channels in the fight against drug trafficking.
From the beginning, the investigations focused on an international criminal organization allegedly dedicated to the introduction of maritime containers contaminated with cocaine through the ports of Barcelona and Valencia.

Business network for receiving shipments

After several police efforts, investigators identified a business network created by the organization to receive cocaine shipments in Spain, focusing its activity on the main company based in Valencia.

At the end of last January, investigators detected a first shipment of three containers from the port of Cartagena (Colombia) to the port of Barcelona, declaring bags of ceramic glue as legal merchandise. After inspecting them, among the merchandise in one of the containers, they intercepted 1,003 packages of cocaine that had a gross weight of 1,124 kilos. As a result of this intervention, the criminal network changed the company that was the recipient of its batches of containers in which it hid the narcotic substance with the aim of masking the arrival of a new batch of drugs.

In mid-March, while the agents were accrediting numerous meetings and meetings of the members of the organization in charge of receiving the drugs, two new containers arrived from Guayaquil (Ecuador) to the port of Valencia.

Finally, the investigators noticed that the containers were transferred to a warehouse – headquarters of the company controlled by the network – and they observed some of its members manipulating the base of one of them and removing numerous packages from inside the structure.

This led to the arrest of five people and, after a thorough inspection of the two containers, the seizure of 130 packages of cocaine that had a gross weight of 143 kilos. On the other hand, several vehicles were located on the ship, one of which had a hidden compartment in the rear area of the passenger compartment, ready for the transport of the narcotic substance.

Seized items

The agents carried out two searches, seizing 80,000 euros in cash and nine mobile phones at the home of the main person responsible for the scheme, some of them with encrypted communications.

With the progress of the investigations, a new line of investigation was opened into the people who were behind the importation of the merchandise, who were in charge of meeting the expenses and document management thereof. In this way, at the end of March, a sixth person was arrested, responsible for the other company in the criminal network, and to whom the reception of the first container in which more than a ton of cocaine was found had been diverted.

Finally, in mid-April, investigators arrested another member of the organization in charge of obtaining and providing the heated vehicle for the transportation and distribution of drugs, completely dismantling the organization.