Guardia Civil has taken down a criminal gang trafficking cocaine from South America to the port of Algeciras. More than 16.5 million euros have been seized, which is up to now the largest amount of cash seized from a criminal organization in Spain during the last 10 years.
28 members of this criminal organization has been deteined.
Among the detainees there is a Spaniard who was on the run from Spanish justice, who was arrested while he was residing with his family, in a house in Amsterdam (Holland). This individual had been on the run since 2017 due to his involvement in another drug introduction operation in which the Civil Guard seized 3,500 kg of cocaine in Estepona.
40 domiciliary searches have been carried out in the towns of Algeciras, San Roque, Marbella, Malaga, Ayamonte and Getxo. More than 1,600 kilograms of cocaine and more than 16.5 million euros have been seized, being up to now the largest amount of cash seized from a criminal organization in Spain in the last 10 years.
This criminal organization had a complex corporate structure with different corporate purposes, the estimated value of the assets discovered so far being more than 5 million euros. Those investigated had an abundant movable and real estate assets, with the value of the discovered assets of more than 7 million euros.
One of the detainees is a worker from a container terminal in the port of Algeciras, known among members of criminal organizations dedicated to cocaine trafficking, as "Messi de la Torre". Due to the functions that he carried out in his work, he had timely and permanent information on the location of maritime containers from South America, as well as requests for container inspections requested by the Security Forces.
Sources:
- www.guardiacivil.es - La Guardia Civil desmantela una estructura criminal que controlaba el tráfico de cocaína a través del Puerto de Algeciras
- www.europol.europa.eu - OPERATION JUMITA: 1.6 TONNES OF COCAINE AND € 16.5 MILLION CONFISCATED IN LARGEST CASH SEIZURE FROM A CRIMINAL ORGANISATION IN SPAIN
