Agents of the Civil Guard, in a joint operation with the National Police, have seized almost four tons of hashish in a macro-operation against a group of drug traffickers who, allegedly, used the Canary Islands as a new gateway to the country. They imported the drug from Africa to Spain in order to distribute it throughout the peninsula and Europe. They had a large infrastructure developed by a company that was in charge of transporting the narcotic substance from the islands to the peninsula through the port of Alicante, hiding it in large wooden compartments by means of maritime containers. Before sending the illegal substance to Madrid, where they stored it in industrial warehouses, the organization cooled it in establishments and premises of the Canary archipelago while waiting to be regularly sent with the certainty of not being discovered. In addition, to evade police action, they carried out counter-surveillance operations for several weeks in the ports and places they intended to use to introduce hashish.
The investigation began when agents became aware of the existence of a route to introduce narcotic substances to the peninsula making a previous stop in the Canary Islands. With this novel technique, they intended to evade police action and easily distribute the drug throughout Europe. With the first investigations they found out that the members of the group of drug traffickers had establishments and premises where they cooled the drug coming from Africa, before sending it to Madrid.
Drug hidden in large wooden compartments
As the investigations progressed, they discovered that they had an infrastructure developed by a company that was in charge of importing the drug to the peninsula in maritime containers. To make it go unnoticed, they hid it in large wooden compartments. In addition, the leaders controlled the movements of the drug at all times from their base in the Canary Islands, where they led an apparently normal and discreet life. To do this, they used complex technical devices and commercial structures, with which they coordinated their main lieutenants to travel to the Iberian Peninsula prior to the arrival of the drug in Madrid.
Thus, these people were in charge of carrying out the counter-surveillance work for several weeks in the ports and places they intended to use to introduce hashish and proceed to its subsequent storage. Once the lieutenants were established in Madrid, they acquired large industrial warehouses away from urban centers, where they could hoard the huge batches of narcotic substance in a safe way. To introduce the drug into the peninsula, they used to use the port of Alicante. Likewise, the organization carried out previous counter-surveillance work by moving its trusted men to the companies in charge of transporting the cargo and, thus, avoid being discovered by police action. In case the police presence was detected, they had the capacity to dismantle the structures created and move them to other locations to avoid their discovery and arrest.
Once the researchers collected all this information, they increased their efforts to control the cities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Alicante and Madrid, used by the criminal plot as strategic points to import hashish. Thanks to the continuous police surveillance of the organization, they discovered an industrial warehouse in the Madrid town of Leganés, where two trucks carried out a load inside in a very short time. Every time these loads occurred, the members of the criminal organization carried out counter-surveillance on the trucks and vans in which, supposedly, they had loaded the narcotic substance, so it was difficult for the agents to carry out the monitoring of these vehicles without being discovered.
Five detainees, the organization dismantled
Shortly after, the agents intercepted a large cargo van on the edge of the municipal district of Casarrubuelos, bordering Toledo. The driver tried to flee before being arrested, endangering pedestrians and vehicles traveling in the area. The investigators seized 1,274 kilograms of very high quality hashish from inside the van.
After this seizure, the agents organized a complex operational framework that aimed to arrest all the members of the criminal organization simultaneously. In this way, two lieutenants who were in Leganés controlling the collection and storage places of the substance were arrested. Likewise, the main leader of the organization, a Spanish citizen based in the Canary Islands who controlled all the operations from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and the third lieutenant, who tried to hide when he discovered that the organization was dismantled, being finally located, were arrested. During the arrest of the leader, two searches were carried out, in one of which the organization had established a first cooling point for the narcotic substance, where the agents seized a pallet containing another 730 kilograms of high quality hashish.
Thanks to this device, it has been possible to completely dismantle the collection and storage places of the narcotic substance that the investigated criminal organization had in Madrid and in the Canary Islands.
Consecutively, the acting agents, who had controlled the entry routes of the narcotic substance of the criminal organization in the peninsula, moved to the Port of Alicante, where a total of 1,782 kilograms of very high quality hashish were seized, thus managing to completely dismantle the investigated criminal organization and fully break its entry route into the Iberian Peninsula. In total, almost four tons of hashish, two vans, a vehicle, a motorcycle, 5,280 euros in cash, various computer equipment and documentation have been seized.
