Operation of the Tax Agency, Civil Guard and National Police

• The organization was made up of dockers and workers from the port of Malaga.

• The investigative units seized more than 400 kilos of cocaine and managed to prevent the entry of at least two more shipments.

• Four dockers, a port services company employee and two other people linked to the gang's logistics and money laundering have been arrested.

November 13, 2024.- Customs Surveillance officers from the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with UDYCO of the National Police and Civil Guard, have arrested seven people for drug trafficking and belonging to a criminal organization and have seized more than 400 kilos of cocaine.

As part of the regular joint operations aimed at eradicating criminal groups operating in the port of Malaga, last year signs were detected of activities related to the extraction of large quantities of cocaine from the facilities on containers coming from South America using the method well known in police jargon as 'blind hook' or 'lost hook'.

For this reason, operational groups from the three bodies began operations within the framework of operation 'Perdidos/Oliva/Sol', aimed at detecting illicit cocaine trafficking and investigating the use by drug trafficking networks of different stevedores in the port of Malaga, who would be engaged in carrying out extractions within the port area of shipments of narcotics hidden in containers, taking advantage of legal commercial traffic and without the knowledge of the importing companies.

Thus, last September 2023, members of the organization were detected preparing to extract the drug from a container positioned at the maritime terminal. The container was placed under close surveillance to prevent the gang of dockers from acting and to stop them at the time of extraction, although the suspects, after a frustrated attempt to act, abandoned their plans and the police units proceeded to seize the stash of 430 kilos of cocaine, valued at more than 20 million euros.

In the following months, the investigative units identified the members of the organisation and intensified the preventive control measures on the port of Malaga with different inspection and surveillance actions, which caused the members of the gang to change their modus operandi, who tried on two occasions to recover some cocaine stashes hidden in torpedoes attached to container ships that were being unloaded at the port facilities.  

In both cases, their intentions were thwarted thanks to the intense police work carried out at the terminal, where naval and aerial Customs Surveillance resources and underwater resources of the Civil Guard were deployed, in addition to the land resources of the three acting bodies.

Arrests and searches

Thus, after obtaining sufficient evidence against the objectives of the investigation, on the morning of October 30, four stevedores, an employee of a service company operating in the port of Malaga itself, as well as two other people related to the logistics of this criminal organization and the laundering of its profits were arrested. In addition, once granted by the judicial authority, three properties were searched where various diving equipment and tools for rescuing narcotics attached to ships were found.

This action has dealt a significant blow to organisations operating in our country dedicated to the transport of cocaine by taking advantage of international trade operations in goods and by introducing large quantities of narcotic substances at origin and extracting them at destination by taking advantage of the existing port structure.

This action highlights the level of specialisation of the investigative units operating in the area, units that work together and are made up of officials from Customs Surveillance (UCMA), the National Police (UDYCO Costa del Sol-Narcotics Section) and the Civil Guard, who continue to work together in a coordinated manner to carry out this type of operation, the complexity and relevance of which is very high.

All the actions carried out, together with the detainees, have been made available to the Investigative Court number eight of Malaga, which has been in charge of investigating the case since last year.