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

• A total of 4,844 kilos of this narcotic, 43 vehicles, 87 real estate properties valued at 16 million euros, 4 boats, one of which was 43 metres long, 4 handguns, 2 shotguns and 1 silencer and 6 million euros in cash, among other valuable items, have been seized.
• The criminal organization was based in Cadiz and Seville, from where it distributed huge 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 was introducing cocaine in containers through the port of Algeciras. The criminal organization was based in Cadiz and Seville, from where it distributed huge quantities of drugs shipped in maritime containers to the American continent.

32 people have been arrested in the course of the three phases of the operation that began in 2017. A total of 4,844 kilos of cocaine, 43 vehicles, 87 properties valued at 16 million euros, 4 boats, one of which was 43 metres long, 4 handguns, 2 shotguns, 1 silencer and 6 million euros in cash, among other valuable items, were seized. The operation involved immobilizing real estate worth 16 million euros and seizing 6 million euros in cash.

Operation started in 2017

The investigation began in the first quarter of 2017, when it became known that an organisation was suspected of introducing large quantities of cocaine into the peninsula via containers from South America and Central America, to be distributed once the various customs controls had been passed.

Once the information held by the three intervening bodies had been analysed, the operational exploitation was coordinated in three phases, in each of which the different structures that made up the organisation were attacked until the complete dismantling of both its operational and its management and financial structure was achieved.

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

Close monitoring of the suspect and his entourage led to the detection of suspicious movements of several vehicles between the aforementioned port and two industrial warehouses in Marbella at the end of December 2017. 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 five arrests were made. This is one of the largest cocaine seizures made in Spain outside a 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 under investigation. The organization's activities were practically paralyzed in the months following the arrests. The researchers focused their efforts on uncovering the functioning of the organisation's peripheral structure, both its negotiators and representatives abroad and its distributors on the peninsula. The criminal network turned out to be highly distributed among numerous countries in Central and South America, as well as across a number of Spanish provinces, including the real estate network they owned in Malaga, Cadiz, Madrid and Seville, with the drugs being stored mostly in the Andalusian capital until their final distribution.

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

Eighteen people were arrested and 26 searches were carried out, resulting in the seizure of more than five million euros in cash, 90 kilograms of cocaine, one of heroin, five firearms, a 43-metre-long luxury boat and numerous pieces of evidence that led to the indictment of those arrested for drug trafficking, membership of a criminal organisation and money laundering.

Arrest of the ringleader

The months dedicated to investigating the criminal group made it possible to establish a clear organizational structure, delimit the roles of all its members and clearly define the different structures that comprised it. Finally, we are looking at the network dedicated to extracting illegal merchandise from port facilities and transporting it to the various warehouses and safe addresses established mainly in the provinces of Malaga and Seville.

Within this branch of the organisation, the figure of a businessman from Cadiz based in Sotogrande stood out, a key player in the distribution and logistics of illegal activities. At the beginning of March this year, this leader 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 belonging to the detainees and the numerous companies they managed were blocked.

Of the 32 people arrested in connection with this investigation, 25 have been placed in pre-trial detention.

Operation filming (to download the video, enter the following web address):

https://we.tl/t-vxik7dQvvw