Agents of the National Police, in a joint operation with the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the Polícia Judiciária of Portugal, have dismantled the criminal organization of cocaine trafficking led by “the fearsome Calín”, thanks to an investigation initiated in Lanzarote last year. A total of 15 people have been arrested with different roles in an organization dedicated to the introduction and distribution of cocaine in Spain, including the leader of the criminal network of Dominican origin.
The investigation began in April 2021 when agents learned that a man of Dominican origin was allegedly responsible for transferring a woman to Lanzarote carrying 60 balls of cocaine among her belongings, for which she was arrested at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport. The agents found out that he turned out to be a feared drug trafficker known as “the fearsome Calín”. In addition, this individual was being investigated by the National Police since 2019 as responsible for the introduction into Spain of 40 kilos of cocaine through the Madrid airport.
Thanks to several police actions, the agents identified the member of the organization in charge of the distribution of cocaine in Asturias and Cantabria. At the end of February, they detected how this individual left his home in a van and met with another man who was on board a car. Subsequently, both vehicles moved to a farm located in a small town in Granada, to later begin the return trip to Madrid. Once in the capital, the vehicles were intercepted, locating 3.5 kilos of cocaine hidden in a “hideout” for which the agents arrested the carrier, the driver of the shuttle vehicle and the person who was going to receive the narcotic substance in Madrid. After being brought to justice, the imprisonment of all of them was decreed.
The investigators detected that the final recipient of the drug and leader of the organization, fled to Portugal when he realized the arrests. After issuing a European Arrest Warrant in the name of the investigated, he was arrested by the Polícia Judiciária of Portugal when he was trying to escape to his country of origin. At the same time, two other men were arrested, specifically those in charge of the sale of the narcotic substance and the laundering of capital from the illicit business.
They introduced 80 kilos of cocaine hidden in suitcases, through the Lisbon Airport
Thanks to the investigation efforts carried out, the agents learned that the investigated could be the owners of a suitcase seized at the Lisbon Airport, in October 2021, which contained inside 30 blocks of one kilo of cocaine and two others, located at the same airport at the end of January of this year with 50 kilograms of the same substance. At that time, through the Division of International Cooperation and the Interior Attaché of the Spanish Embassy in Lisbon, the collaboration mechanisms were activated, being able to corroborate the suspicions.
The investigations carried out by the Portuguese police allowed to identify the traveler in whose name the suitcases were, verifying that he was part of the investigated criminal group. At the beginning of March, the agents located him in Madrid, where he was arrested together with the owners of the seized substance. Among those arrested was a woman who used false documentation from Belgium in order to hide an arrest warrant, ordered by Italy, for drug trafficking. The six detainees, after being brought to justice, were imprisoned.
15 people arrested and 10 searches in Madrid and Granada
The operation against the criminal organization, responsible for the control of numerous points of sale in different parts of the national territory such as Cantabria, Asturias and Madrid, has ended with the arrest of 15 people and the realization of 10 searches in homes in Madrid (7), Alcorcón (1), Getafe (1), and in the Granada municipality of Huétor Tájar (1), in which 83,100 kilos of cocaine, a revolver, seven vehicles, 4,240 euros in cash, 28 mobile phones, two scales and two vacuum packers have been seized. In addition, they have also seized 560 grams of hashish, six high-end watches, 15 luxury bags, two laptops, a tablet and numerous documentation.
