Jan
6
Spanish police seize 3 tonnes of cocaine
Filed Under EN
The cocaine was bound for an important smuggling ring based on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, the statement added.
Police also seized 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million) in cash and a handgun. The interception led to a larger seizure of cocaine, weapons and vehicles in a warehouse in the city of Pontevedra.
The seizure in the northwestern Galicia region was “the biggest for this type of drug on Galician soil since 1999”, the police said in a statement, without revealing when the operation took place.
Over the following weekend members of the British gang were seen meeting Spanish and Dutch subjects, who were tasked with collecting the initial 300kg.
The 11 men – a mixture of British, Dutch and Spanish – were arrested in Galicia by Spanish National Police on behalf of the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), which targets British organised crime.
The Iberian Peninsula is considered the main gateway to Europe for cocaine from Latin America.
Galician drug barons first opened routes into Spain via the region with the Colombian Cali and Medellin cartels in the 1980s.
The drugs seized in Galicia in this new operation are thought to have come from Colombia.
The Costa del Sol – once dubbed the “Costa del Crime” – has been known as a hideaway for British criminals in the past, especially in the late 1970s and 80s when there were no extradition agreements with Britain.
Last month six men from Liverpool were arrested after police in the port of Valencia, eastern Spain, discovered 1.5 tonnes of cocaine disguised as wooden pallets.
In November, they announced the arrest of British man Robert Dawes, accused of running Europe’s largest drug-trafficking network.
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