• The investigations were carried out by a multidisciplinary team made up of Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency in Extremadura and National Police officers

• Those in charge of the joint operation corroborated the information, carrying out a controlled parcel delivery and proceeding to arrest the individual who received the package, which contained prohibited weapons.

• Three people have been arrested in the operation, and the main suspect has been ordered to be imprisoned.

June 19, 2026. Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency in Extremadura, in a joint operation with National Police officers assigned to the Provincial Police Station of Badajoz, have dismantled an organization that introduced prohibited weapons into the city of Badajoz and have proceeded to arrest three people for their alleged authorship of a crime of trafficking and storage of prohibited weapons, in a network in which the accused used parcel companies to introduce the weapons, providing fictitious identities and companies.

The investigation began last May by agents of the Provincial Brigade of Judicial Police of Badajoz, specifically the third group, who received information about a network in which two people from the town were allegedly introducing firearms into Badajoz, these facts coinciding with the proliferation of violent episodes that occurred in recent months.

In the first part of this investigation, different actions, discreet surveillance and monitoring were carried out in order to locate and identify the alleged perpetrators of this network. Thus, the investigators discovered that the possible way of introducing the weapons was being done through parcel delivery companies, taking advantage of the fact that members of this organization were responsible for one of these companies. In addition, other companies are being used to receive packages. At that time, the investigators requested collaboration from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Extremadura.

From that moment, both institutions created a multidisciplinary group, continuing jointly with the so-called 'Alcántara' operation.

'Modus operandi'

The investigations determined the 'modus operandi' used by the network, which provided identity data and fictitious companies, incorrect delivery addresses and telephones in the name of third parties as a security measure, to avoid possible police actions and the supposed impossibility of linking these packages to those under investigation.

The packages were always received in pre-selected locations on public roads, to facilitate the adoption of security measures. Subsequently, they were taken to the parcel warehouse where members of the organization worked, and there they were mixed with other packages for later transfer, with some security, to the organization's homes since the suspects appeared to be conventional delivery drivers.

Initial interventions and subsequent records

With the necessary information, a suspicious shipment was detected on June 11th, so the investigators from the multidisciplinary team established a surveillance device and observed the main suspect taking charge of the package. At that moment, the investigators proceeded to intercept it and located inside the shipment a submachine gun with a retractable stock of the 9 millimeter parabellum caliber, a .380 caliber handgun, a high capacity cylindrical magazine and a silencer, proceeding to the immediate arrest of the recipient of the shipment for the alleged authorship of a crime of trafficking and storage of weapons.

At the same time, other members of the multidisciplinary team, who were guarding the homes of the suspects and the delivery warehouse, with the required Judicial Authorization, carried out a simultaneous entry and search of these properties, where they seized seven pistols, a silencer, 4,610 euros and 3,355 euros in allegedly counterfeit bills.

Manipulated weapons

All the weapons seized showed signs of tampering, both in serial numbers, which were erased, and in added elements. These modifications imply the consequent prohibition of its sale and marketing, according to current legislation in Spain.

The Extremadura Operational Unit of Customs Surveillance continues to carry out economic and asset investigations in support of the investigation of the alleged arms trafficking discovered.

The detainees, two men aged 30 and 46 and a 46-year-old woman, were placed at the disposal of the Judicial Authority, which ordered the main suspect to be imprisoned.