Las Palmas De Gran Canaria (EFE).- The Civil Guard and the authorities of Portugal, France and Great Britain, coordinated by Europol, have dismantled a gang based in Andalusia that sent cocaine and hashish to Europe with the arrest of 50 members and the intervention of 2.5 tons of drugs, and has frustrated a cache that was going to be unloaded in Gran Canaria, where five other arrests have been made.
This is the “Castle” operation, which began in 2022 when it became known that a criminal organization based in Huelva and Campo de Gibraltar, with links to Portugal, was responsible for most of the launchings of drug vessels that were carried out. in Spain, as reported by the armed institute on Tuesday.
The investigations that have culminated in the seizure of 4,800 kilograms of hashish and 1,962 kilograms of cocaine have allowed three hashish caches to be intercepted near the mouth of the Guadiana river, between Algeciras and Tarifa and in the Guadalquivir river, where four members of the organization.
The agents discovered that the top of the investigated organization was located in the Campo de Gibraltar and was associated with another clan from the province of Huelva that launched the boats through Portugal.
For this reason, last summer the Civil Guard carried out 21 house searches in Moguer, Lucena del Puerto, Bonares and Niebla (Huelva) and San Roque, La Línea and Alcalá de los Gazules (Cádiz), in which they arrested 19 people and involved two fast boats, eight 350 hp engines, 3,750 liters of gasoline, six vehicles and electronic material and abundant material for communications.
As a result of these arrests, the agents were able to verify that a part of the organization had loaded the drug to the west of the Moroccan coast to be transferred to peninsular territory by means of a fast boat and that the crew in charge of transporting it, upon learning that the chiefs and members of the organization were being detained, they could not unload the drugs on the peninsula.
After several days at sea, the crew members of the boat contacted another organization based in Gran Canaria and dedicated to cocaine trafficking so that they could support them with the stash.
When they were going to a beach in the municipality of La Aldea de San Nicolás, the Civil Guard established a device that allowed them to locate the boat, a semi-rigid with three 375 CV engines, and an abandoned van, inside which they found 1,962 kilograms of cocaine.
This is how the armed institute managed to dismantle the organization located in the Canary Islands, making four entries and searches in the municipalities of Telde and La Aldea de San Nicolás, in which it arrested five more members.
The Civil Guard underlines in its statement that the organizations dedicated to hashish trafficking have established strong links with organizations dedicated to cocaine trafficking that use the African route in both directions: the hashish would leave Morocco in the direction of America and, in the opposite direction , the cocaine would travel across the Atlantic landing on the west coast of Africa to later transport it to the Peninsula.
The Regional Center for Analysis and Intelligence against drug trafficking, the Canary Islands Organized Crime Team of the Central Operational Unit, and the commands of Seville, Huelva and Las Palmas, all of them coordinated by Europol and the Portuguese authorities, have intervened in this operation. , French and Great Britain. EFE