Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police together with the DEA of the United States and the National Police of Panama

• The intervention of the narcotic, which was traveling among the legal merchandise of a container from Panama, is one of the largest in a Spanish port through the 'blind hook' system
• Perfect international cooperation has allowed the drug to not reach the market

May 19, 2022.- The Tax Agency and the National Police, in a joint operation that has had the collaboration of the DEA of the United States and the National Police of Panama, have intervened about 1,500 kilos of cocaine hidden in a container in the port of Barcelona. Perfect international cooperation has allowed the drug to not reach the market.

The investigation began when the operational units detected a criminal organization that, based in Panama and Colombia, was trying to send four containers to the port of Barcelona, although only one would be destined to transport drugs. The efforts carried out by the North American Anti-Drug Agency (DEA) in Panama made it possible to identify the container that transported the narcotic and which, as legal merchandise, declared it had pressed cardboard. 

The control device established last Tuesday in the port of Barcelona made it possible to verify that, behind the first rows of legal merchandise declared by the container, around 50 bags containing the drugs were hidden. After the mandatory count and the 'narcotest' tests, it turned out to be around a ton and a half of cocaine.

'Blind hook'

The investigators highlight that the cocaine consignment is one of the largest seized in a Spanish port through the 'blind hook', a system used by the criminal organizations involved. In this method, the exporting and importing companies are unaware, in principle, that their containers are used by the mafias that operate within the ports for the importation and recovery of cocaine in Europe.

A detailed analysis of the transportation and concealment system of this large consignment of cocaine allows investigators to affirm that, supposedly, it is an organization with the capacity not only to extract the illicit cargo from the container in an area subject to great surveillance and control, but also for subsequent distribution on the European black market.