Algeciras (Cádiz), (EFE).- The Civil Guard, with the support of other international forces in the fight against drug trafficking, has seized 6.5 tons of cocaine hidden in banana containers in an operation in which dismantled a network dedicated to introducing large quantities of this drug from Colombia through the port of Algeciras (Cádiz).
The network concealed the drugs in banana containers that travel to Spain from South America on ships. As reported today by the Civil Guard in a press release.
In the so-called “Operation Squid” 13 people have been arrested.
The operation began last October 2022 when investigators detected the activity of a criminal organization. Whose boss, based in Malaga, is considered one of the main cocaine drug traffickers in Spain.
His lieutenant belonged to a well-known family that resides in the town of Castellar de la Frontera (Cádiz), in Campo de Gibraltar. And he used a wholesale frozen fish company in Algeciras to mask the income obtained through drug trafficking.
The organization, according to the Civil Guard, introduced large quantities of cocaine through maritime containers loaded with bananas. Coming from Colombia and Ecuador, and that made arrive at the port of Algeciras.
The collusion of public officials
To do this, “they tried to obtain the collusion of public officials,” explains the Civil Guard.
Once the containers were removed from the port facilities, they were taken to a nursery ship. Where they replaced the pallets that contained the cocaine with identical ones with legal merchandise of bananas.
During their investigations, investigators have aborted several network transactions in which a total of 6.5 tons have been seized.
The first was in December. When the organization used a container of bananas that left from the port of Turbo (Colombia) with its final destination Algeciras.
During the transit of the ship in the port of Cartagena (Colombia), the container is inspected by the authorities of that country. And that they found 3,000 cocaine pills of approximately one kilo each.
In a second attempt, the drug traffickers tried to send a second consignment of cocaine from the port of Cartagena (Colombia). With final destination to the port of Vigo.
The intention of the organization was to extract the cocaine once the container arrived at the port of Algeciras. And move her to a ship-nursery in the vicinity.
However, this second shipment was frustrated again by the Colombian authorities. That they found 1,250 kilograms of cocaine when inspecting the container in the port of Cartagena (Colombia).
After the seizure of these more than four tons of cocaine, the organization made a third attempt.
This time they sent the container with the cocaine from the port of Guayaquil (Ecuador) to avoid a new seizure in Colombia.
Records in Cádiz and Málaga
When the container managed to reach Algeciras, the investigators observed how a truck driver from the organization extracted it, left the port area and went to a warehouse located in an industrial estate in Antequera (Málaga).
When the drugs were unloaded there, the agents entered and seized a total of 2,296 kilograms of cocaine, hidden among pallets of bananas. There they arrested seven people.
The investigators later practiced several entries and searches in the homes of the main members of the organization.
In the searches of houses in Algeciras, Málaga and Castellar de la Frontera (Cádiz), in addition to another industrial warehouse in Algeciras, around one and a half million euros were seized in cash, different high-end vehicles, watches of high economic value , as well as a large number of electronic devices used by the organization in order to hinder a possible police investigation.
The value of the drugs seized on the black market amounts to more than 233 million euros.
The investigation has been carried out by the Algeciras Command with the collaboration of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard (UCO) and EUROPOL.
In addition, other international agencies have participated, such as the Custom Border Protection of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Anti-Narcotics Directorate of the Colombian National Police (DIRAN) and Latvian authorities.
In the records, the investigators had the support of the Special Intervention Unit (UEI) and the Rapid Action Group (GAR) of the Civil Guard. EFE