29 Dec, 2021 @ 11:45
3 mins read

Joakim Broberg, stepson of Marbella Mayor Angeles Muñoz, extradited to Spain over drug trafficking, money laundering and organised crime

Munoz Y Broberg And Son

THE stepson of Marbella Mayor Angeles Muñoz has been extradited to Spain to face accusations of drug trafficking, money laundering and being involved in organised crime.

Joakim Peter Broberg had been languishing behind bars in Brazil since April waiting for a court decision on extradition, which was finally made in November. He then remained in jail until December 20 before being flown to Spain accompanied by Spanish police, reports LA Opinion de Malaga.

In July, the Swedish man’s lawyer told the Brazilian RecordTV programme Fala Brasil that Broberg was ‘anxious’ to be extradited to Spain.

The businessman was arrested in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte on April 7 following a warrant from the National High Court, and on April 20 the South American country’s Federal Supreme Court ordered him to be remanded in custody pending extradition following a request from Interpol.

jBroberg small
Joakim Broberg.

Police had traced Broberg’s whereabouts through his use of banking software installed on his mobile phone.

The search for the Swedish businessman involved police officers from the UK, Spain, France and the Netherlands.

Joakim and his father Lars – husband of Muñoz – were among the 71 people so far arrested in a police operation spanning both Spain and Sweden. 

munoz broberg
Marbella mayor Angeles Muñoz and her husband Lars Broberg.

Real estate boss Lars, 80 was picked up for questioning in February, while his 41-year-old son Joakim was arrested in Brazil.

The investigation – dubbed Operation Mueble (Operation Furniture) – began in 2018, and was divided into four phases.

It was launched when the Swedish authorities asked Spain’s Policia Nacional to investigate a group of drug traffickers coming from the Costa del Sol.

They claimed that up to 50 deaths a year could be linked to a settling of scores between the gang and other Scandinavian rivals.

When police raided a series of warehouses in 2018, they found 55,000 heroin substitute pills and 85 kg of cannabis.

The products arrived hidden in furniture collected from the San Pedro del Alcantara industrial estate, near Marbella.

Suspecting a new shipment, the Policia Nacional raided a transportation company’s warehouse and arrested a foreman and an assistant while they were preparing to move an additional 265 kilos of hashish.

They also found four kilos of cannabis in one of their homes.

During the raid, in 2018, they also found an alarming array of guns, including two submachine guns, eight handguns, a rifle and a hand grenade.

The ‘front’ company, which also had a base in Torrevieja, on the Costa Blanca, had over €1.8 million frozen in bank accounts, while €592,000 in cash was also seized.

A total of 50 vehicles were seized along with properties worth over €14 million. 

They allegedly arrested the owner of the transport company who is based between Malmo, in Sweden, and Alicante.

The wealthy businessman owns a number of companies in Sweden.

A further raid of the Broberg’s Wasa Consulting company in February meanwhile led to the arrests of six people and the seizure of documents, which police are still investigating.

The same Marbella office, in Centro Plaza, in Nueva Andalucia, also held a series of documents for a string of companies – believed to be 17 in total – owned by Joakim.

Lars Broberg has defended the absolute legality of his activity.

He insisted he was collaborating with the investigators, ensuring he gave the police everything they needed.

His son was harder to track down and it wasn’t until April this year that police were forced to issue a search and capture warrant for his arrest

The operation centres around a huge drug smuggling ring that imported drugs from Morocco to San Pedro on the Costa del Sol attached to the hulls of pleasure craft.

The drugs were also imported in modified surfboards powered by underwater propulsion engines.

In total, 25 bales of hashish weighing around 500 kilos were found attached to one surfboard alone.

According to police sources, the Swedish organisation bought numerous properties in Malaga at high prices in order to launder the money. 

In addition, 64 luxury properties and plots of land were located and seized. 

The total amount of property and assets recovered is estimated to be well over €55 million.

The investigators believe that the ultimate aim was to transfer the money to third party companies in tax havens where luxury goods were purchased or loans were granted to the companies based in Spain, thus laundering the money.

READ MORE:

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

driving licence British embassy photo
Previous Story

BREXIT UPDATE: Driving licence validity for Brits in Spain extended until end of February

Cases Noves (campanario Guadalest)
Next Story

Interactive map reveals COVID-19 hotspots and towns unaffected on Spain’s Costa Blanca

Latest from Crime & Law

Go toTop

More From The Olive Press