• Seven people have been arrested in Albacete and Valencia for the crimes of drug trafficking, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering.

• The drugs were hidden inside two pieces of scrap metal that had been hollowed out and filled with cement and insulating rubber, thus creating a chamber that contained 210 packages of cocaine weighing approximately one kilo each.

October 25, 2023.- Customs Surveillance Officials of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police and in collaboration with the Judicial Police of Portugal, have seized 210 kilos of cocaine hidden in industrial machinery declared as scrap from Panama. Seven people have been arrested in Albacete and Valencia for the crimes of drug trafficking, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering. The drugs were hidden inside two pieces of scrap metal that had been hollowed out and filled with cement and insulating rubber, thus creating a chamber that contained 210 packages of cocaine weighing approximately one kilo each.

This investigation began in January 2022 when it was detected that a Spanish company, with no apparent commercial activity, had imported a container of fruit pulp from South America. The first steps carried out by the agents made it possible to find out that the company's current administrators had been arrested together in 2017 for their relationship with a marijuana plantation in an industrial warehouse in Valencia. The transfer of the company had been recent and its corporate purpose had also been modified, which is why an investigation into the two detainees began.

The first surveillance carried out by the investigation groups showed that the relationship between them was suspicious. They used to meet in parking lots and have meetings with people with a history of drug trafficking. Furthermore, the researchers verified that one of those investigated was the one who maintained control of the decisions, while the other was used as a 'straw man'.

In April 2022, these two men rented a warehouse in Ribarroja and began to condition it to store fruit, installing refrigeration systems. It was suspicious to the investigators that those investigated did not carry out any negotiations with potential buyers of the food they intended to import and showed absolute ignorance of the requirements of the international trade activities in which they were embarking. At one point, those investigated began to make arrangements to import a container of bananas, a fruit that, due to refrigeration problems in the container, arrived rotten, which led to the company's bankruptcy.

At the beginning of 2023, those investigated created a new scrap metal import company in Portugal, incorporating the son-in-law of one of them, a truck driver by profession, into the project. In addition, they rented a warehouse with a crane bridge in Villarrobledo (Albacete) to handle the scrap metal.

Pieces of scrap hollowed out to introduce the drug

In September 2023, Customs Surveillance alerted the Portuguese authorities of the arrival of four containers that would be delivered to Villarrobledo, so a surveillance device was set up around the unloading ship. At one point, investigators detect a van occupied by a man who was carrying out counter-surveillance work in the industrial estate. After unloading the last container, the agents decided to act by taking advantage of the entry of a crane truck into the warehouse. This vehicle was driven by a man not involved in the investigation, who told investigators that he had been called to load two pieces of the truck. These, part of the hydraulic arm of an excavator, stand out among all the scrap metal for their large volume.

The agents discovered that the pieces had been hollowed out, filled with cement and insulating rubber, creating a chamber that contained 210 packages of cocaine, each package weighing approximately one kilo. The seven people in charge of receiving the narcotic substance are currently being arrested for crimes of drug trafficking that cause serious damage to health, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering.