Alex Trelinski
AUTHORITIES have smashed a drug-trafficking gang that hired ‘mules’ to collect cocaine shipments from Madrid airport.
The criminals paid vulnerable people up €10,000 each and gave them a low-cost plane ticket to access the airport’s luggage area.
The ‘mules’ would then pick up suitcases crammed with drugs off conveyor belts and pass them onto waiting gang members outside the airport.
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The narcotics were then stored at flats in Madrid and Guadalajara.
The Guardia Civil- Policia National operation resulted in 30 arrests including the gang boss.
They have been charged with public health crimes, electricity fraud and belonging to a criminal organisation.
Inquiries started last year when police at Madrid airport got suspicious over several people with valid flight tickets not boarding planes but going directly to the baggage claim area.
The ‘mules’- once inside the airport- were then given specific mobile phone instructions as to how and where to collect their allocated suitcase.
Officers seized over 790 kilos of cocaine that arrived in luggage at the facility.
The first arrests were made last September when three men and two women were caught trying to leave the airport with over 150 kilos of cocaine in their suitcases.
One of the females was clutching a low-cost ticket with a UK destination on it, but was collecting from a South American baggage claim area.
More detentions followed over the next seven months, culminating with four arrests in March with over 100 kilos found in cases.
Swoops were then made at six addresses in Guadalajara and Madrid, with another 13 arrests.
The operation also saw the seizure of nine mobile phones, five cars, and €50,000 in cash plus the dismantling of a marijuana farm.
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