• Coronavirus: this is the new crime in Madrid: more cybercriminals and traffickers disguised as delivery men

The confinement sharpens the ingenuity and in the face of an activity with the imagination as developed as drug trafficking, it is enough to see the many ways that these substances are tried to strain through the airports, the distributors have developed methods to make them reach their customers. In addition, the increase in messaging platforms that distribute any product plays an important role, mainly when it is a sale between individuals.

And it is that to make the shipments, the criminals place the drug in unthinkable places, such as the inside of a soda bottle, hidden among the clothes or in a hole made in a book. Even the Mossos d'Esquadra have detected a new modality consisting of hiring the services of a vehicle with a driver to provide drugs to consumers. For this reason, the agents have intensified the notices to courier companies and rental of transport services so that if they suspect anything, they call the emergency number.

The Mossos have detected in Barcelona in recent days an increase in drug transactions through shipments made by courier and parcel platforms as police controls established to maintain mobility restrictions continue. Therefore, they urge companies to detect substances before distributing packages, guaranteeing the safety of workers. In this way, they ask that distributors be provided with a guide to ensure they do not transport drugs and how to act to notify the police of any suspicion.

They also alert private transport companies to extreme alerts in cases where drug dealers hire vehicles with a driver to transport it to the consumer. The agents ask to take extreme precautions and to warn them in any situation that could jeopardize their integrity.

Between March 16 and April 14, during the confinement, the Mossos have registered some thirty cases of drug distribution with this modality in the districts of Ciutat Vella, Eixample and Sant Martí. In most cases, the courier himself alerted the police that he suspected he was carrying a package of drugs. In each case, the police have opened an investigation to identify both the person who ordered the shipment and the recipient, although the hypothesis is that there are thirty isolated criminal incidents, with no link between them.

Last Tuesday a courier reported that there was no liquid in the soda bottle that he was distributing but marijuana, so agents from the Eixample police station seized it and began an investigation to identify the people who promoted the shipment. A week ago two couriers alerted that they were carrying a package that "smelled very heavy and weighed very little", so the agents found marijuana inside and arrested a worker since he had a search and capture order.

At a police check-up on Friday, April 10, the Mossos detained a man in a taxi with a one-liter bottle containing liquid ecstasy, as well as bags with amphetamines and other pills. He was not the only trafficker hunted at a control as the same day, he arrested another passenger in a vehicle with a driver who was carrying two plastic containers sealed with drugs. That same Friday, Ciutat Vella agents identified a delivery man with a book in which a hole had been made to place drugs. The Mossos investigate thanks to the data provided by the courier.

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  • Mossos d'Esquadra
  • Barcelona
  • Catalonia
  • Covid 19

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