• The leaders financed, controlled and supplied the organization with logistical means such as petaqueo nurseries, high-speed boats and food supplies necessary to support drug trafficking.

• 15 people have been arrested

• The criminal organization was based in Chiclana and extended its tentacles to Cádiz, San Fernando and Chiclana de la Frontera

December 17, 2024.- The Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police and the Civil Guard, within the framework of Operation 'Navegante', carried out in Cádiz, has proceeded to arrest 15 people belonging to a criminal organization, led by a well-known family clan, dedicated to drug trafficking logistics such as petaqueo nurseries, fuel, high-speed boats and food supplies necessary to facilitate drug trafficking.

Seven house searches have been carried out in the towns of Chiclana de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa María and Puerto Real, where a four-metre inflatable boat with a motor, three deflated inflatable boats, four inflatable boat motors and three engine tails, four vehicles and two motorcycles were seized. 21,580 euros in cash, five weapons, a military smoke grenade, two police rotaries, two machetes, three GPS units, 27 telephones and two satellite telephones, seven kilos of marijuana, 18 hashish pills and 2,475 litres of petrol in flasks were also seized.

The operation began when agents learned of the existence of a criminal organization that could be engaged in supplying fuel, food and support during crew changes to high-speed semi-rigid vessels used for drug trafficking and immigration, thus facilitating drug shipments.

Continuing with the investigations, it was found that the organization was fully structured and hierarchical and was led by a well-known family clan based in Chiclana. This organization presents a hierarchical hierarchy with a clear division of functions in which the leaders, both brothers, are in charge of control and financing to acquire gasoline, vehicles, boats, logistics centers such as fuel storage, engines for high-speed boats, trusted contacts, and security tasks in the transfer of gasoline containers as well as in the purchase of food for the drug boat pilots.

On the second level was the lieutenant and "right-hand man" of the leaders, who assumed the role of trusted person for contact tasks with other members of the organization who occupy lower levels in the structure.

Extensive history of drug trafficking crimes

The members of the organization have an extensive criminal record for crimes related to drug trafficking. It should be noted that the organization carried out in a concerted and coordinated manner all the necessary actions to facilitate the shipments, providing logistical support to other vessels that were already in the water to supply them with fuel, provisions, crew changes and even to exchange gasoline for bales of hashish.

Police pressure also forced members of the organization to alternate locations for supplying supplies and to set up new fuel depots located at different points in the province with the intention of making surveillance and police action more difficult. These fuel depots have been stored in different buildings located both within the city centre and on the outskirts. Some of them even live in rooms in houses next to children's bedrooms where normal life takes place, and also on the ground floor of buildings where numerous families reside.

All of this is accompanied by the danger of transporting this type of flammable and incendiary products in vans, which creates a serious risk for people in the event of an explosion.