The National Police and the Civil Guard, in a joint operation coordinated by Europol, have dismantled one of the largest human trafficking and drug trafficking networks in Spain, with 78 arrests.
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The organization was one of the largest dedicated to maritime trafficking of people and drugs in the Mediterranean. The network combined both activities to maximize the performance of the vessels: they were used for drug trafficking on the outbound trip and for human trafficking on the return trip. In this way, it irregularly introduced more than 2,000 migrants into Spain and obtained profits exceeding 24 million euros.
The investigations detected that the group used high-speed vessels, valued at more than five million euros, to transport drugs from Spain to Algeria and that, on the return journey, it irregularly transported migrants to the coasts of Almería, Murcia, Cartagena, Alicante, and Ibiza.
The operation resulted in 78 arrests, 27 of them already in provisional prison, and the search of 17 properties in several provinces of Spain, where drugs, cash, weapons, and ammunition were seized.
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The agents highlighted that among those arrested are members of “high value” in the hierarchy of the gang: four of the main leaders of the network and the so-called hawaladar, responsible for managing the economic infrastructure of the organization through an informal money transfer system.
The group members used very aggressive techniques during the trafficking of people and drugs, and also to defend the vessels themselves. The investigations remain open, representing a severe blow to international human and drug trafficking in Spain.
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