• The judicial authority ordered the imprisonment of the detainees, two Spanish men aged 33 and 34 with no police record.

• Investigators carried out four raids and searches in the towns of Porcuna, Vilches and Andújar

• This is the largest seizure of this substance in the province of Jaén.

November 12, 2024.- Customs Surveillance officials of the Tax Agency, together with agents of the National Police assigned to the Narcotics Group of the Linares Local Police Station, have arrested two men of Spanish nationality aged 33 and 34 as alleged perpetrators of a crime against public health (drug trafficking) and have dismantled a cocaine laboratory.

The operation began on October 22, when the Tax Agency's Risk Analysis Unit at Madrid-Barajas Airport detected several packages that, due to their density and size, and after being examined by "X-rays", could contain narcotic substances.

This shipment, consisting of two packages weighing 25.5 kilos each, had been sent by a company in Quito (Ecuador) and was destined for a company in the town of Porcuna, which had already received up to four similar shipments this year. The merchandise, which had been declared as a sample of fertilizer products, consisted of two white bags of a brown substance that, after being sent to a laboratory, tested positive for cocaine.

Subsequently, after the Regional Customs Surveillance Area of the Tax Agency in Madrid requested authorization for the circulation and controlled delivery of the shipment to the Investigative Court No. 8 of Madrid on duty, the so-called "Amazonas" operation was jointly initiated between the Customs Surveillance Operational Unit of the Tax Agency in Córdoba and the Linares Narcotics Group of the National Police.

Following the establishment of a device by the officers of both groups, the controlled delivery of the two packages to their recipient was carried out at a petrol station in the town of Porcuna.

After analyzing the substance contained in the shipment and confirming that it was cocaine, the recipient was arrested and his home and storage room were searched, where a long weapon and several bottles of liquid amino acids were seized.

"Narco-laboratory" on a farm in Andújar

Following further investigations, the involvement of a second suspect was determined. He had a property in Andújar, which was allegedly being used as a laboratory for processing cocaine.

A search operation was then set up, and on 29 October the farm was located. Inside the farm there was a building similar to a stable for animals, which contained a laboratory with all the material for extracting and preparing cocaine.

After the relevant search, numerous kitchen utensils, a large pot, drying lamps, as well as moulds to shape the cocaine packages and a plastic container with calcium chloride flakes were found in the stable. These materials would be used to transform fertilizer into a narcotic substance after a chemical process. In addition, inside the house there was a large amount of long-range ammunition and two silencers hidden among the clothes in a closet. 

Once the search of the property was completed, the second suspect was arrested, after which another search was carried out in a house owned by him, located in the town of Vilches, where eight long weapons were seized.

Once they were brought before the judicial authorities, both detainees were ordered to be sent to prison. The investigation is still ongoing and future arrests of members of the organization are not ruled out.