Alberto Lejarraga
A SOUTH American drug gang that smuggled over 1,200 kg of cocaine through Valencia and Barcelona ports have been dismantled.
All the seven members of the criminal group have been arrested by Policia Nacional.
They created a Valencia-based business network for the reception of cocaine shipments in Spain.
Police investigators first intercepted three containers arriving at the Port of Barcelona from Colombia at the end of January.
The shipment was declared as sacks of ceramic glue, but contained 1,124 kg of cocaine instead.
This operation led the gang to change the company used for the transport of the substances.
But agents detected a second shipment arriving from Ecuador to the Port of Valencia in March.
After an intensive search, 143 kg of cocaine were found hidden in the bottom of a container of bananas.
Police arrested all the seven members of the organisation and searched the leader’s house.
More than €80,000 in cash, three vehicles and nine mobile phones, some of them with encrypted communications, were seized from the property
Policia Nacional collaborated with police authorities in Colombia, Ecuador and the American Homeland Security.
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