Ex-Malaga FC footballer arrested in Estepona accused of being ringleader of drug trafficking operation on Spain’s Costa del Sol as one TONNE of hashish and guns seized and 19 others cuffed

AN ex-Malaga FC player has been arrested on suspicion of leading a drug trafficking operation on the Costa del Sol. 

Sergio Contreras Pardo, aka Koke, became one of 20 arrested when he was picked up at his house in Estepona this morning.

According to local reports, the property is being raided for evidence as part of an Andalucia-wide police operation which stretches as far as Loja in Granada and Los Molares and Utrera in Sevilla.

In Malaga city, Guardia Civil have stormed a likely safehouse on Calle Maximo Gorky, where they arrested one suspect and seized cash and other items.

Some 20 have been arrested, including Koke’s brother, while some 150 agents have seized large amounts of cash, weapons and a tonne of hashish.

Koke played for Malaga FC from 2002 before moving on to Marseille, Portugal, Aris de Salonica and Houston Dynamo in the US.

He played his last years in India where he was hugely popular, before hanging up his boots and returning to Estepona.