The Mossos d’Esquadra have dismantled a family organization based in Barcelona that was dedicated to supplying firearms and ammunition to organized crime. The arms traffickers were led by the family father, a 37-year-old Spaniard, who directed the purchase and sale of material from prison, where he had been held since 2009, convicted of homicide. The Mossos d’Esquadra investigation coincided during one of their surveillances with investigators from the Policía Nacional who were on the trail of the same arms traffickers. The heads of both investigations created a joint group from that moment on.
The investigation began late last year after the Mossos d’Esquadra dismantled a violent youth organization, the Trinitarios, in l’Hospitalet, during which the origin of the firearms and ammunition they had used during their criminal activity could be determined. This identification was the origin of a specific investigation, focused exclusively on firearms trafficking, in the context of the existing problem in Catalonia regarding the increased presence of pistols and revolvers in recent incidents.
The Criminal Investigation Division of the southern metropolitan police region brought the investigation to court in Vilafranca del Penedès and began surveillance work based on a suspect. The sergeant leading the investigation explained this Wednesday the surprise they got when they confirmed that the man personally directed the purchase and sale of weapons from his prison cell, and that his partner and one of the couple’s daughters were in charge of carrying out the operations outside the prison.
Clients across Europe and promotional videos of weapons for sale
The leader of the organization entered prison accused of homicide and has been serving a sentence since 2009 in a Catalan prison. Through instant messaging applications on mobile phones seized in his cell, he was responsible for contacting buyers and arms suppliers. The sergeant assured that the dismantled organization had the capacity to obtain any type of weapon and ammunition. “The only limitation was the economic capacity of the buyers. Whatever they wanted, they could get,” he warned. To the extent that a grenade launcher was found during the search of the apartment where the family of the organization’s leader lived.
Read more Third attack in five days against Wildberries, the «Russian Amazon»
Both the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Policía Nacional have highlighted the importance of the investigation because it has allowed them to cut off the supply of firearms to some of the criminal organizations operating not only in Catalonia, but also in the rest of Spain and Europe. The detainees had clients throughout Europe. And the daughter, also arrested, was in charge of making videos in her own home in which she manipulated the weapons and naturally detailed the specifics of that pistol or revolver.
During the police surveillance of the suspects, investigators witnessed how the arms transaction was carried out in broad daylight, in shopping centers or public car parks, without any security measures, and with the woman’s minor children in the back of the vehicle. “Surely that naturalness with which they operated was what didn’t arouse suspicion,” concluded the sergeant.
