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The anti-terrorist unit of the Guardia Civil struck under cover of darkness: In the night from Monday to Tuesday, the Spanish police blew up an international arms dealer ring that had been actively supporting the drug mafia operating between Europe and Africa for years.
In contrast to the dozens of raids in recent months, the suspects are foreign rather than domestic: two Germans and one British.
The men are accused of supplying the smugglers, known as Narcos, who work on the Costa del Sol and in the Strait of Gibraltar with weapons of war - including machine guns, handguns and grenades.
The trio was targeted by the investigators for two years before they struck.
Previously, the Spaniards had called the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in the investigation.
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In view of the escalation of the drug war in southern Spain in 2018, when two officers were killed and several injured, Madrid had intensified the fight against the Narcos in the south of the country - among other things by setting up a special unit stationed in the Andalusian capital Seville.
In the course of this, the Germans and the British were noticed by the investigators.
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One of the Germans is said to have obtained the weapons mainly in Eastern Europe;
He has already been investigated for illegal possession of weapons in Germany.
The man lived as a supposed pensioner in a suburb of Málaga.
The second German is said to have made sure that the Narcos received the weapons.
As WELT learned from investigators, the Germans are said to have generally not received any money for this, but hashish imported from Morocco - which they then resold themselves.
In total, the trio are accused of five crimes.
According to the investigation, the German who handed the weapons over to the Narcos had hidden his weapons in high-quality vehicles with double floors.
He is also said to have moved through Europe with forged passports.
Also explosive: when the officers struck, they came across dozens of firearms and more than a thousand cartridges, including an anti-tank grenade.
The Guardia Civil published this photo taken in the rooms of one of the smugglers
Source: Guardia Civil
From the point of view of the Spanish authorities, the fact that the man stored hundreds of Nazi devotionals, including uniforms, flags, helmets, busts and weapons, is not criminally relevant from the perspective of the Spanish authorities.
The Guardia Civil spoke of a "Nazi museum" that was excavated.
The British are currently assigned a subordinate role: He is said to have acted as the contact person for the Narcos and helped to thread the weapons deals.
The trio are in custody and a court in Coín, Málaga province, is dealing with the case.