DrugsNews

Dismantled a criminal organization in Andalusia dedicated to international drug trafficking with 14 detainees

The Spanish Civil Guard and the Tax Agency, in collaboration with EUROPOL in a joint investigation, have arrested 14 members of a criminal organization that transported large quantities of hashish from Spain to various countries of the European Union.The police operation began in September 2021 when agents of the Organized Crime and Anti-drug Team of the Seville Civil Guard and the Seville Customs Surveillance Operational Unit detected a group of individuals who were allegedly engaging in drug trafficking through international level, with the town of Écija (Seville) as the epicenter of criminal activity.

With the progress of the investigations, the agents were able to verify how there was another branch of the organization based in the province of Malaga, this being the one in charge of acquiring the narcotic substance in the town of Ayamonte (Huelva), its nursery in Malaga and subsequent transport to Écija (Seville), where the Seville branch would take charge of the narcotics, for their preparation and subsequent transport to various European countries.

Thus, in the month of February 2022, it was possible to intercept, in the province of Granada, a first truck that carried 950 kilograms of hashish hidden among its legal cargo, the destination of this merchandise being France.

Once this apprehension took place, the members of the organization increased the security measures, modifying their usual modus operandi.

Later, in October of that same year, another seizure of 1,000 kilograms of hashish was carried out, which was hidden in the cargo of another truck that could also be intercepted in La Carolina (Jaén).

At this point, and after a break in the Seville branch due to the two apprehensions described, the investigation focused on the Malaga branch, and in January 2023 the agents managed to intercept two vans loaded with hashish, one of them with about 600 kilograms, which was intercepted on the A-92 highway at the height of Puebla de Cazalla (Seville) and the other, with just over 900 kilograms of hashish, in the town of Pizarra (Málaga).

Registers and seized effects

Once all the members of the organization were identified, the exploitation of the operation was carried out on February 21, with the practice of 16 house searches authorized by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 2 of Écija (Seville).

As a result of the searches carried out, more than one and a half million euros in cash were seized. Part of this money, 1,085,000 euros, appears hidden in a vehicle, which one of the leaders of the organization had rented, in the Seville town of Écija. That same morning the agents detained a member of the organization, when he was circulating on the roads of Malaga. In the vehicle that the detainee was circulating, Ogre, a dog from the Civil Guard’s cynological group specializing in the search for money, finds a false bottom inside which were 136,000 euros. 

Likewise, the agents intervene, 3 firearms, two of them long and a pistol with a silencer, 14 vehicles, several of them high-end, as well as numerous documentation from the companies used to provide legal cover for the transport of drugs. 

With this operation, this criminal organization based in the area of ​​Écija (Seville) and Málaga is considered dismantled, with the arrest of 14 of its members who are accused of crimes against public health, belonging to a criminal organization and money laundering. capitals. The Judge responsible for the Instruction of the Operation decreed the imprisonment of 12 of its members.