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The state of alarm and the restrictions on travel to the entire population are not an obstacle for drug traffickers to try to continue sneaking their drug caches in Spain and in the Galician Rías Baixas it seems that they have even spurred the activity of this type of organization, which they trust that the Security Forces are focused on other functions related to coronavirus management and their actions go unnoticed. On the Galician coast, these attempts have been unsuccessful and they have just received the second blow in a month with the arrest of 28 people and the seizure of 4,500 kilos of cocaine that they intended to put into Europe from the Americas.

The general commissioner of the Judicial Police of the National Police, Eloy Quirós, has confirmed this Tuesday in an appearance in the port of Vigo, where the intervened drug arrived, in which he assured that the Security Bodies "do not rest" and in For a month and a half of confinement, 10 tons of cocaine have been seized and more than 60 have been arrested for drug trafficking. The vigilance of criminal groups "has not decreased despite the circumstances we have," he insisted.

Police collaboration is being key in this context. On March 28, a joint operation of the National Police and the Civil Guard allowed to frustrate the activity of an organization that was trying to put drugs in the old way, through two gliders loaded with cocaine that were trying to reach the coast, but, after a police chase, ended their almost three tons of cocaine intervened.

This weekend, the operation was the result of collaboration between the Customs Surveillance Service and the National Police. Not only was a larger cache of drugs, around 4,500 kilos, apprehended, but the one that, according to the organizers, it was "the most important drug trafficking organization in Galicia", made up of experienced boatmen and well-known traffickers.

It would be an organization supposedly related to the Santorum family. There were several detainees of this clan, but their alleged leader, Juan Carlos Santorum, is currently unaccounted for. In addition, the businessman from O Salnés Braulio Vázquez was arrested.

Yes, the 15 crew members who were on board the ship that transported the drug have fallen, as well as 13 other people from the organization who were working on land so that the cache could reach its destination. 14 sailors from Nepal and Bangladesh and a Galician were traveling on the ship, which would be the guarantee for the organization that owns the drug that the macro-cache would have a happy ending.

Police collaboration has been more intense this time. The investigation, coordinated by the Pontevedra Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office and directed by the Investigating Court number 3 of Vigo, has had the collaboration of the Spanish Navy, the American Anti-Drug Agency -DEA-, the British National Crime Agency -NCA- and the Colombian Police -DIRAN-.

The drug was seized aboard the Togolese-flagged ship Karar, boarded at around 6 am on April 25, about 600 miles west of Lisbon, about 400 miles from Vigo, and carrying 152 30-kilo bales. of cocaine. The ship 'Tornado' of the Spanish Navy, based in the Canary Islands, carried up to this point in Atlantic waters a dozen officials and agents of the Tax Agency and the Special Operations Group (GEO) of the National Police and, after intervening the drug, escorted the ship to the port of Vigo, where it arrived this Tuesday.

The ship had left Panama earlier this month, had allegedly loaded the drug off the coast of Venezuela and had been traveling for about 20 days, bound for Vigo, but on Sunday its plans were frustrated and the boarding was carried out simultaneously to a ground operation in which 21 searches were carried out (6 in ships), five speedboats and numerous vehicles were intervened and 13 people were arrested.

The operation is still open and new arrests are not ruled out, but, for now, the criminal organization's "modus operandi" has already been established. After six months of investigations, it has been confirmed that he put himself at the service of the most important drug trafficking structures, both nationally and internationally, allegedly being required to collect cocaine on the high seas when required.

The investigated group had a large number of boats and motors, which they kept in security warehouses distributed between northern Portugal and different locations in Pontevedra, and it has finally fallen after investigators detected that they were completing certain details, such as the construction of boats. and small fishing boats or the storage of fuel and supplies, and they made constant movements of speedboats to hide them in ships off the Galician coast.

Alerted that they were in the last stage of preparation before carrying out a drug trafficking operation, the National Police and the SVA searched for the mother ship, detected it in Atlantic waters and carried out the operation. It has meant taking out a drug cache that could reach a value of 120 or 140 million euros.

Appearance at the foot of the port

The sub-delegate of the Government in Pontevedra, Maica Larriba, confirmed this Tuesday in the port of Vigo that this operation demonstrates that the Security Forces "continue to work in all areas that affect the safety of the population", in addition to "being overturned" in the fight against the coronavirus and insisted that this operation has been "long, arduous and extremely difficult".

Eloy Quirós explained that the "peculiarity" of this organization is that "they manufactured the boats themselves", thus achieving "cost savings" and also evading the control that the Police exercise in this type of intervention. Jaime Gayá, head of Customs Surveillance in Galicia, insisted on the patrimonial importance of this operation, in which there are already audited accounts and blocked properties.

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Know more

  • Drugs
  • Drug trafficking
  • Galicia
  • National Police
  • Pontevedra
  • Portugal
  • Venezuela
  • Tax agency
  • America
  • Canary Islands
  • Colombia
  • Spain
  • Europe
  • Civil Guard
  • Nepal

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