Joint investigation by the Tax Agency, Guardia Civil and the National Police

• A total of 4,844 kilos of this narcotic have been seized, 43 vehicles, 87 real estate properties valued at 16 million euros, 4 boats, one of which is 43 meters in length, 4 short weapons, 2 shotguns and 1 silencer, and 6 million euros in cash among other valuable items
• The criminal organization was based in Cádiz and Seville, from where it distributed enormous quantities of drugs from Central and South America.
• 32 people have been arrested in our country during the three phases of the operation that began in 2017

June 8, 2019.- Officials from the Tax Agency and agents from the Civil Guard and the National Police have dismantled a drug trafficking network that introduced cocaine in containers through the port of Algeciras . The criminal organization was based in Cádiz and Seville, from where it distributed enormous quantities of drugs shipped in maritime containers on the American continent.

32 people have been arrested during the three phases of the operation that began in 2017. A total of 4,844 kilos of cocaine, 43 vehicles, 87 real estate properties valued at 16 million euros, 4 boats, one of which is 43 meters in length, 4 short weapons, 2 shotguns, 1 silencer and 6 million euros have been seized. in cash among other valuable items. In the operation, real estate properties worth 16 million euros have been immobilized and 6 million euros in cash have been seized.

Operation started in 2017

The beginning of the investigation dates back to the first quarter of 2017 when it was learned of the existence of an organization suspected of introducing large consignments of cocaine into the peninsula through containers from South America and Central America to be distributed once the different customs controls had been passed. .

Once the information held by the three intervening organizations had been analyzed, operational exploitation was coordinated in three phases, in each of which the different structures that made up the organization were attacked until the complete dismantling of both its operational structure and the directive and financial.

In the first phase, the investigations led the investigators to a businessman based in Barcelona and owner of a corporate network in Spain and Brazil, which facilitated the establishment of contacts for the negotiation at origin of important consignments of cocaine that were being introduced into the territory. Spanish through the Port of Algeciras.

The close control exercised over the investigated person and his surroundings managed to detect at the end of December 2017 suspicious movements of several vehicles between the aforementioned port and two industrial warehouses in Marbella. The agents intercepted a van that turned out to contain 1,100 kilograms of cocaine in numerous packages, in view of which the search was extended to the industrial warehouses, where another 2,400 kg were located. and there were five arrests. This is one of the largest cocaine seizures made in Spain outside the port area.

Criminal network located in America and several Spanish provinces

The second operational phase was marked by the increase in the already high precautions of the rest of those investigated. Coming to the practical paralysis of the organization's activities in the months following the arrests made. The researchers focused their efforts on discovering the functioning of the organization's peripheral structure, both the negotiators and representatives abroad and its distributors in the peninsula. The criminal network turned out to be strongly relocated between numerous countries in Central and South America, as well as a multitude of Spanish provinces, among which the real estate network that they owned in Malaga, Cádiz, Madrid and Seville stands out, with the majority being in the Andalusian capital where it was kept. the drug until its final distribution.

Once all the members of the organization were identified at the beginning of January 2019, by order of the Central Investigative Court number 5 of the National Court, the operational execution of the second investigative phase was carried out.

18 people were arrested and 26 searches were carried out in which more than five million euros in cash, 90 kilograms of cocaine, one kilogram of heroin, five firearms, a 43-meter-long luxury boat were seized. length and numerous evidence that allowed the detainees to be charged with drug trafficking, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering.

Stopping the leader

The months dedicated to the investigation of the criminal group made it possible to establish a clear composition of its organizational chart, delimit the roles of all its members and clearly define the different structures that made it up. Finally, looking at the network dedicated to extracting illicit merchandise from port facilities and transporting it to the different warehouses and security addresses established mainly in the provinces of Malaga and Seville.

Within this branch of the organization, the figure of a businessman from Cádiz living in Sotogrande stood out, a key player in the distribution and logistics of illegal activities. At the beginning of March of this year, this ringleader was arrested along with eight other members, during the course of ten searches carried out in the province of Cádiz, specifically in Sotogrande, Algeciras and Alcalá de los Gazules.

A total of 1,254 kilograms of cocaine, more than eight hundred thousand euros in cash, a firearm, a boat, numerous high-end vehicles were seized, and 17 properties worth more than six million euros and 103 vehicles, under the ownership of the detainees and the numerous companies they managed.

Of the 32 detained in the framework of this investigation, 25 have been remanded in preventive detention.

Filming of operation (to download the video you must enter the following web address):

https://we.tl/t-vxik7dQvvw