The Civil Guard, in collaboration with various countries and in coordination with Europol, has completely dismantled and rendered inoperative the "super cartel" of the Balkans, responsible for 50% of the cocaine that arrives in Europe, by dismantling its main branches.
The Adriatic operation, as it is called in Spain and which has lasted more than four years, was reported this Thursday by those responsible for the fight against drug trafficking of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard and of countries such as Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Dubai, Germany, Belgium and Turkey.
After the operation, the Balkans clan has been completely inoperative, made up of several organizations that trafficked cocaine that they brought from Brazil via the West African route and stored it in Sierra Leone, where the cartel had logistics centers, to take it to the Canary Islands and from there distribute it throughout Europe.
In total, 40 people have been arrested -13 of them in Spain and already in prison-, of which three were "high value targets" and 8 tons of cocaine, war weapons, 12.5 million euros in cash and 3 million dollars also in cash have been seized, in addition to the immobilization of assets worth 50 million euros in Serbia.
Precisely, yesterday the last intervention against this network was carried out in Spain, specifically in the Canary Islands and Malaga, with two detainees in each case, alleged responsible for collecting the drug.
Both the general head of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard, Alfonso López Malo, and the lieutenant colonel responsible for the fight against drug trafficking in the UCO, Óscar Esteban Remacha, have highlighted the challenge that this operation posed, but have stressed the importance of its result as a result of police and judicial cooperation between the aforementioned countries.
In Spain, the Adriatic operation has been directed by the Central Court number 6 of the National Court - which has issued 18 arrest warrants that would be added to the 40 arrests made in the various countries - and the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office.
For those responsible for the operation, this has been developed with a coordination "unprecedented at police level" from Europol and with the fundamental collaboration of countries such as Brazil, Turkey and the emirate of Dubai.
It was in Dubai and Turkey where the main leaders of these criminal groups were established, closely linked to each other and with the capacity to deploy their collaborators in different parts of the world in order to facilitate this global cocaine trafficking, the Civil Guard emphasizes.
A sailboat with 1,000 kilos of cocaine, the beginning of the operation
Everything started for Spain in the Falkusa operation, carried out in September 2020 when the Civil Guard intercepted 1,000 kilos of cocaine on a Croatian-flagged sailboat bound for the Canary Islands and arrested its three occupants.
The investigators were able to verify that the sailboat had unloaded the merchandise from a freighter in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea.
The information obtained in this operation, especially that extracted from the encrypted communications of the devices seized from the detainees, was shared with Europol.
And pulling the thread led to a criminal organization that directed the traffic of tons of cocaine from Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. Precisely, this last country was the point of origin in a large part of the cases that have been investigated and from which its maritime shipments of drugs left to logistics centers in West Africa -Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast- and the Canary Islands.
Later, in August 2023, the UCO intercepted a boat with 700 kilos of cocaine in waters near the Canary Islands. From that operation, the agents extracted information of great value, because it was found that there had been a previous transport of 500 kilos of cocaine from Brazil, by the same Italian-Croatian crew and the same boat.
All this information was of great help in the course of this macro-operation, which places its managers and intermediaries from the Western Balkans.
In the operation, war weapons have been seized in Serbia, although investigators have not found any evidence that they come from shipments sent to Ukraine.
A 'broker' with the capacity to move tons of cocaine
But none of these branches could move without one of the key pieces of the puzzle: a 'broker', arrested in Turkey, and whom the organizations hired because he had all the necessary means for all phases of cocaine trafficking.
With the capacity to "move tons of drugs", they turned to him to buy the drug from suppliers in Brazil, to be able to deposit the cocaine in Africa and for its transfer to the Canary Islands, that is, he had the contacts for all the necessary infrastructure, including the narcolanchas.
So important in the business, that he was kidnapped due to clashes between organizations and was precisely released because the main drug trafficking mafia in Brazil, called Primeiro Comanda da Capital, paid his ransom.
The investigators have highlighted, in this sense, the great violence of these organizations, as recognized by the head of the Europol Drugs Unit, Robert Fay, who summarized it as follows: "There is a daily murder between them."
