Jan
6
Police arrest 12, seize 3 tons of cocaine in Spain
Filed Under EN
Over the following weekend members of the British gang were seen meeting Spanish and Dutch subjects, who were tasked with collecting the initial 300kg.
It is understood all three tonnes of cocaine, the biggest land seizure of cocaine by Spain’s National Police force in Galicia since 1999, were due to be taken to Britain.
Spain is a major gateway into Europe for cocaine coming from its former colonies in Latin America, a major producer of the drug.
Police said the cocaine arrived by boat and was ultimately destined for the British and Dutch drugs markets.
Five of the Brits, aged between 31 and 59, are from Liverpool including the alleged 59-year-old leader of the drugs gang.
Police acting on a tip-off from the UK National Crime Agency, Britain’s version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, swooped on a warehouse in Galicia, north west Spain, where the gang were about to load part of the stash into a secret compartment in the roof of a van.
Galicia, a coastal region, has always been used by drug traffickers for carrying narcotics to Europe.
Galician drug barons first opened routes into Spain via the region with the Colombian Cali and Medellin cartels in the 1980s. In the same month, they arrested Briton Robert Dawes at his luxury villa on the Costa del Sol over claims he was behind Europe’s largest drugs ring.
Thus, on December 11, the police had already announced the seizure in the port of Valencia (East) of 1.4 ton of fake wood pallets imported from Colombia which were “actually made of cocaine” and the arrest of twelve suspects in Spain, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
He has since been extradited to France, where he is wanted in connection with the discovery of 1.3 tonnes of cocaine in a Paris airport in 2013.
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