ENCRYPTED chats have revealed a narco gang’s influence over the Port of Valencia, its dock workers and police officers.
Messages uncovered from the encrypted app Zangi suggest one narco group claimed to have control over the Port of Valencia.
A narco-trafficker, known only as Esteban B, boasted about his gang’s control over the port and authorities writing, “We have a system that controls all police checkpoints.”
Five months later police busted the group after finding 4.5kg of cocaine stored in various containers at the port.
The police operation, dubbed Operation Spider, led to more than 80 arrests, including 17 dock workers and a Guardia Civil officer.
Representatives from transport companies, trade unions and even a doctor for port staff were all allegedly involved in helping the gang move shipments of cocaine through the port.
The arrests highlight the extent of the narco gang’s infiltration into key personnel and law enforcement at the port.
Gang members described dockworkers as ‘the key’ to guarantee safe passage of cocaine from the port into Europe.
Encrypted messages also reveal that the gang used Marbella as a discreet location for ‘board meetings,’ where senior members of the gang would gather to coordinate operations.
In one such meeting, they discussed using drones to deliver ‘six packages’ of cocaine.
In another message, Esteban B, believed to be the gang’s head of logistics, pushed for the fast-tracking of a cocaine shipment from mainland Spain to Ibiza.
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“It could be done very well. And, now since it’s the tourist season, it’s very advantageous for us,” he wrote.
The message highlights how the network timed its operations around peak tourist season, when higher demand and busier transport routes can make narco shipments harder to detect.
Although the gang has since been dismantled by police, the messages reveal how deeply it had infiltrated the port and extended its reach well beyond Valencia, including to Marbella.
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