The Customs Inspection Tax Office and the Civil Guard were arrested in a joint investigation conducted in cooperation with Europol. 14 criminal organization members Transporting large quantities of cannabis from Spain to various countries of the European Union.
Police operation started in September 2021 The epicenter of the activity is the town of Écija (Seville) when agents of the Seville Customs Surveillance Operations Unit and the Seville Civil Guard’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement team identified a group of alleged international drug traffickers. as reported in a press release.
As the investigations progressed, the agents were able to confirm how another branch of the organization located in Malaga province. This was responsible for the purchase of the Narcotic substance in the town. Transport to Ayamonte (Huelva), the ‘nursery’ in Malaga and then to Écija (Seville), Where the branch located in Seville will be responsible for the preparation of narcotics and their subsequent transport to various European countries.
Thus, in February 2022, the first TIR, which was going to France and was hidden among its legal cargo, was intervened in the province of Granada. 950 kilos of cannabis. After this arrest took place, members of the organization increased security measures and changed their usual ‘mode of operation’.
Then, in October of the same year, 1,000 kilograms of marijuana was seized, stored in the cargo of another truck seized in La Carolina (Jaén). In this sense, the investigation focused on the Malaga branch so that Agents managed to intercept two vans loaded with marijuana in January 2023.one was caught on the A-92 highway at about 600 kilos at the height of Puebla de Cazalla (Seville) and the other at just over 900 kilos, in the town of Pizarra (Málaga).
Records and impacts seized
After the identification of all members of the organization, the operation was carried out on February 21. 16 home registrations Authorized by the Écija (Seville) Court of First Instance and Order number 2.
As a result of the recordings, intervention was made. more than one and a half million euros in cash. Some of that money, 1,085,000 euros, turned out to be hidden in a vehicle rented in Écija by one of the organisation’s leaders. That same morning, agents detained an organization member while he was driving on the roads of Malaga. A fake floor containing 136 thousand euros was found in the vehicle used by the detainee.
Likewise, agents intervened. three firearms, two of which are long, and a pistol with a silencer and 14 vehicles, many of which are top-notch, and numerous documents from companies used to provide legal protection for drug shipping.
This criminal organization established in the region with this operation Ecija (Seville) and Malagawas arrested, along with the arrest of 14 of its members on charges of crimes against public health, membership of a criminal organization and money laundering. The judge responsible for the investigation of the operation ordered that the 12 members be imprisoned.