Seven people arrested. Its market value would have exceeded 30 million euros.

On January 27, the Tax Agency and the National Police seized 1,000 kilos of high-purity cocaine in an industrial warehouse in Viana (Navarra). The drug was dissolved in 110 drums of frozen fruit pulp. Its value on the black market is believed to have exceeded 30 million euros.

 

The operation, called "Candela", began in 2008 thanks to joint investigations by National Police officers assigned to the Drugs and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO) of the Costa del Sol of the Torremolinos-Benalmádena Police Station and Group 43 of the Central Narcotics Brigade, and officers from the Customs Surveillance Operational Units of the Tax Agency of Andalusia and the Basque Country. These investigations uncovered a plot to introduce large quantities of cocaine into national territory and its subsequent distribution throughout several countries in the European Union.

 

These investigations led to the imminent importation of a container carrying cocaine dissolved in frozen fruit pulp. The refrigerated container departed on December 12, 2009 on a container ship from Buenaventura, Colombia. After being transferred to another vessel in Balboa, Panama, and crossing the Panama Canal, it arrived at the port of Algeciras on December 30, 2009. The container was transferred again to another ship bound for Bilbao, where it was finally unloaded on 14 January 2010, and an exhaustive surveillance device was established for the container and the main persons under investigation.

 

The frozen drums were transported to Alava and then on 27 January 2010 to an industrial warehouse that the organisation had rented in an industrial estate in the town of Viana, Navarre.

 

Once the merchandise reached its destination, National Police and Customs Surveillance officers entered and searched the aforementioned ship, surprising five people handling twenty-three tons of fruit pulp with dissolved liquid cocaine.

To avoid customs controls, the organisation established commercial contacts with exporting companies based in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia and used legal importing companies in Spain, with front men at their head. Liquid cocaine was mixed with fruit pulp using chemical processes, and once at its destination, it was chemically separated and dried to turn it into cocaine powder, ready for consumption.

 

The operation was completed with actions in Mijas, Malaga and Alicante.  A total of seven people were arrested and three cars, a refrigerated van, 5,500 euros in cash, several high-quality forged passports, computer equipment, mobile phones and a large amount of documentation were seized.

 

The detainees have been placed at the disposal of the competent judicial authority together with the reports prepared and the evidence provided, and all of them have been ordered to be sent to prison.