Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police together with the Argentine Federal Police and the Peruvian National Police

• During the joint operation, seven people were arrested in Spain, four in Argentina, and four in Peru. A total of 15 entries and searches were carried out in homes and five in industrial warehouses in Spain.

• The investigation has led to the seizure of 513 kilos of cocaine hidden in the false bottom of a heavy industrial machine, which was shipped from Argentina to a warehouse in the Extremaduran town of Mérida.

• The actions against the criminal organization, based in Spain, Argentina and Peru, began in 2024 and, since then, 2,600 kilos of cocaine have been seized, which they were hiding in different types of industrial machinery, crushing machines, lathes, drills or milling machines that they were transporting in maritime containers.

September 9, 2025.- The Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Unit, in a joint operation with agents from the National Police, the Argentine Federal Police, and the Peruvian National Police, has dismantled two criminal organizations dedicated to intercontinental cocaine trafficking via containers.

During the operation, five people were arrested in Spain and four in Argentina, and a total of 15 raids and searches were carried out. The investigation has led to the seizure of 513 kilos of cocaine hidden in the false bottom of a heavy industrial machine, which was shipped from Argentina to an industrial warehouse in the Extremaduran town of Mérida.

An industrial lathe from Buenos Aires to Algeciras

The investigation began last April when the Malaga Customs Surveillance Operational Unit detected, through risk analysis, a shipment suspected of containing narcotics that was to be sent from Buenos Aires to Algeciras and, subsequently, to Badajoz.

At the same time, the National Police received information from the Argentine Federal Police about the possible existence of a heavy industrial lathe in the Buenos Aires seaport that could be used to transport narcotics, although the heavy security measures with which the machinery was built had prevented the drug from being detected.

Suspecting possible cocaine contamination of the industrial material and knowing it was intended for export to Spain, international police collaboration mechanisms between the two states were activated through the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Service and the National Police.

The agents' investigations revealed that the machinery was being imported through the port of Algeciras, via a company with its registered office in the province of Badajoz. The investigation revealed that a criminal organization based in Seville with international connections was behind the shipment.

Continuing the investigation, after a broad analysis of financial products and business entities, it was discovered that behind the imports was a network of overlapping companies with several front men and straw men that the organization used to hinder any investigation.

At the end of July, the container from Argentina, complete with heavy machinery, arrived at the port of Algeciras, where it remained for approximately a month. At the end of August, and in anticipation of the terminal's departure, investigators established surveillance. The container with the machinery was loaded onto a truck and departed for Extremadura, finally being unloaded on August 28 at a warehouse located in Mérida (Badajoz).

When the agents observed that the vessel did not correspond to its legally declared destination, they entered the warehouse where, after a complex operation, they discovered a false bottom in the machinery, where they found a total of 444 cocaine pills weighing 513 kilos.

Once the narcotic substance was discovered, five Spanish citizens linked to the criminal organization based in Seville were arrested.

2,600 kilos of cocaine in industrial machinery since 2024

The investigation into the criminal organization began in 2024, when the presence of the organization, based in Peru, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina, was detected. It carried out simultaneous shipments of cocaine from different ports of origin to Spain and Portugal, concealing the drug in complex industrial machinery systems. Since the investigation began, 2,600 kilos of cocaine have been seized from the criminal organization.

Among the seizures are 833 kilos in a crushing machine at the port of Paita-Piura in Peru in March 2024, and 854 kilos in lathes on the Peru-Ecuador border in May of this year.