The Spanish Civil Guard dismantles a criminal organization dedicated to transporting drugs to France

The Spanish Civil Guard, within the framework of the “KIME” operation, carried out in Gandía (Valencia), has arrested 11 people, of different nationalities, belonging to a criminal organization dedicated to transporting drugs to France, both by sea and by land. The detainees are charged with the alleged crimes of drug trafficking, belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and document fraud.

In addition, 25 current accounts with more than 280,000 euros, 44 medium and high-end vehicles, motorcycles, trucks and refrigerated semi-trailers, a yacht and a semi-rigid boat have been blocked. Likewise, 23 properties have been judicially blocked in the town of Oliva, valued at 5 million euros, as well as various prepaid cards and a multitude of mobile phones. Likewise, the agents also seized a drone, geolocation devices, satellite phones and a vacuum packaging machine.

The operation began in September, when agents suspected that the owner of a perishable goods trucking company could be using the trucks to transport drugs to France.As a result of the investigations, it was learned that a driver, a member of this organization, was driving a truck bound for France. For this reason, at the Montpellier customs office, the French authorities proceeded to search the truck, finding more than 390 kilograms of hashish and almost 100 kilograms of vacuum-packed marijuana in a false bottom of the semi-trailer, for which the driver was arrested.  Later, Civil Guard agents proceeded to stop a vehicle on the AP-7, which belonged to a construction company, and the driver fled. In a follow-up and supported by a patrol from the Traffic Group, the agents managed to catch up with him. After an exhaustive search of the vehicle, 250 kilograms of hashish were found. The driver, owner of the construction company to which the car belonged, was arrested and the investigators identified him as one of the trusted men of the criminal organization. As a result of this arrest, the agents carried out a house search in the town of Els Poblets. In addition, 9 more searches were carried out, in the municipality of Oliva, 5 in homes, one in an industrial warehouse, another in a parlor, 2 storage rooms of a furniture storage company and in a yacht with double bottoms docked at the municipality’s yacht club. . In the records, a block of 700 grams of cocaine, 2 kilograms of marijuana, 500 grams of hashish and almost 13,000 euros in cash were seized.  In total, 11 people (10 men and one woman) of different nationalities (Chilean, Spanish, Moroccan and Romanian) have been arrested for the crimes of drug trafficking, belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and false documents. This criminal group offered its members, from the locutorio, mobile phone cards with foreign names, even of people who did not exist. In this way, they used the devices without revealing the identity of the true users. Other members were dedicated to the surveillance of the places where the drug deliveries were made, the study of the means of transport to carry them out and they acquired the necessary technology to ensure the success of their objectives. The trucks used by the organization had refrigerated semi-trailers with a hydraulic system that managed to open part of the semi-trailer, thus hiding the drug under vacuum. The semi-trailers that were used to commit the crimes had the chassis numbers erased and the registration plates did not correspond to the owners.  In addition, the investigators managed to discover that the authors also used one of their boats, provided with double bottoms, to introduce hashish into the peninsula from the Balearic Islands (Ibiza and Formentera). The municipality of Oliva was always the entry route for the narcotic substance.