A joint operation by the Tax Agency and the Guardia Civil

• To extract the drugs, the intervention of firefighters was necessary, who used special tools for cutting metal.
• The organization introduced the machinery, from Colombia, through the port of Valencia and after a series of transshipments it was intercepted in the town of Sueca.
• Three homes have been searched in Alicante and four people have been arrested as responsible for the events.

January 28, 2022 .- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, in a joint operation, have seized 464 kilos of cocaine that were hidden inside a crushing machine of 11 tons that arrived at the port of Valencia and whose declared destination was a company domiciled in Tres Cantos (Madrid).

Within the framework of the operation, three searches have been carried out in homes in Alicante and four people have been arrested as responsible for the events, one of them of Argentine nationality and the remaining three Spaniards. The extraction of the drugs from the machinery has been carried out with great difficulty over the last few days, to the point of requiring specialized equipment, given the characteristics of the concealment system and the weight of the machinery.

The proceedings were initiated as a result of a request for international collaboration issued by the Colombian National Police and the Colombian prosecutor's office (Directorate of the National Specialized Prosecutor's Office against Drug Trafficking) for the execution of an international controlled delivery requested from the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National Court. Spanish, who directed the first phases of the investigation. The operation also had the cooperation of the National Drug Control Directorate of the Dominican Republic.

According to additional information received, once the drugs were hidden inside the industrial machinery, they would be transported from the Cali area (Colombia) to the port of Santa Marta in the same country. There it would be placed in a maritime container and dispatched for export to the port of Valencia. A criminal group made up of Spanish citizens with ties to Colombia would be in charge of organizing the export of the container with the machinery already contaminated with the cocaine hidden inside.

As a result of the investigations carried out and prior to the arrival of the container to Spain, the investigators had managed to identify the main people responsible for the criminal organization established in the Valencian Community, alleged recipients of the drugs, and several warehouses linked to companies controlled by the organization. , which could be the destination of the container once it arrives in Spanish territory.

Container interception, searches and arrests

After the container left the port of Valencia, Customs Surveillance officials and Civil Guard agents designed a monitored delivery authorized by the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office of the National Court.

The container was moved to a warehouse located in Silla (Valencia), where the organization unloaded its contents. Subsequently, the machinery was loaded again into a new vehicle that transported it to a warehouse located in La Nucía (Alicante). The organization carried out a new transfer there to another vehicle, which transported the merchandise to the place where the operational actions were finally carried out: a warehouse located in the town of Sueca (Valencia). All these transfers generated added difficulty for the researchers to complete the monitoring successfully and without the organization noticing their presence.

In the Sueca warehouse, two people were arrested who were waiting to receive the machinery. Next, a total of 14 metal cylinders that were part of the industrial device, an 11-ton crushing machine, were extracted. Inside the cylinders was the drug, for whose extraction the collaboration of a local fire department was requested. This work continued throughout the day and the next day, given the complexity of the operation. The cylinders were finally transferred to the Valencia Customs facilities for storage, custody and subsequent expert analysis.

Once it was proven that the substance hidden inside the cylinders was cocaine, three home searches were carried out with the result of the arrest of two other people, who were already under surveillance, as the most responsible for the criminal organization. In addition, three vehicles, a van, cash, a drone, two mobile phones and various computer equipment were seized.

The detainees were handed over to the Investigative Court number 12 of Valencia. Provisional detention was ordered for three of them. The fourth was released with a ban on leaving the national territory.

Recent history in Lleida

This method of hiding cocaine in industrial machinery has been used on other occasions to try to introduce drugs into our country. In fact, very recently the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard have carried out another operation, without links to the present one, in which the drug concealment system was similar. At the beginning of the year, 620 kilos of cocaine were seized in the port of Barcelona, which was hidden in a 12-ton rotor. The Risk Analysis Unit of Barcelona Customs detected possible anomalies in the shipment destined for Lleida. After opening it thanks to heavy industrial machinery, 537 packages of cocaine were located inside the rotor cylinder, whose market value would be around 20 million euros.