This Civil GuardIn cooperation with Europol, in the framework of operation ‘Fit’, dismantled so called acquaintance criminal organization mainly devoted Bringing large quantities of cocaine from South America to all of Europeknown as “The Faruku clan”. During the operation, 21 houses were searched. The states of Cádiz, Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona and Toledocontinued 17 people were arrestedamong them the main members of the organization and as a quote Inquiry about 20 people further.
As explained in a note by the Civil Guard, during the investigation it has been possible to attribute a large number of concerns to the organization. medicines a total of approximately 10,000 kilos of cocaine and 10,000 kilos of cannabis in different European countries, It highlights two tons of cocaine seized in the port of Algeciras in January 2022.
So far, it has been Seizure of 25 vehicles and 22 properties for precautionary purposes with an approximate value of more than 4,200,000 Euros and also blocked in the accounts/products of 14 individuals and 30 companies.
operation started September 2021 when agents spot a group of people preparing to smuggle a large amount of cocaine hidden in a container Algeciras Port (Cádiz).
This fact was confirmed in January 2022. 2 tons of cocaine hidden in a container seized in port from Guayaquil (Ecuador)was carrying a frozen hailfish. Thanks to this intervention, it was revealed that those responsible for the drugs were members of an organization under investigation.
From then on, as the Civil Guards explained, investigators carried out painstaking work in identifying and locating members of the organization, determining their position in the hierarchical structure, including their leaders.
In this process, it was revealed that the organization was responsible for other attempts to smuggle cocaine captured by police forces in other European countries. In this way, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands or Spain in the last two years.
In addition to the arrests made during the exploitation of this operation, a total of around 10,000 kilos of cocaine was seized across Europe during all this time and 39 people were arrested. To these figures must be added another 10,000 kilos of cannabis seized in Portugal; this was not intended to be distributed as usual, rather the aim was to replace every pound of marijuana from Morocco for one kilo of cocaine in South America.
WEIGHT-WEIGHT
As explained by the Civil Guard, This practice is unusual and known as kilo-to-kiloIt is typical of strong criminal organizations with sufficient infrastructure to act. Large quantities of drugs between South America and Europe and they mutually agree to trade cannabis for cocaine, taking advantage of each product’s low price at origin and higher selling price at destination.
The ‘Faruku clan’ consists mostly of ethnic Albanians with family ties. they had been a few years settled in SpainHe has numerous records, including murder, mainly in Madrid and the Costa del Sol, and indictments in various European countries. This is the case of its leader, Kreshnik Budlla, nicknamed ‘Niko’, who has several demands and is now on the run from justice.
The Civil Guard stated that this Albanian family group occupied. They are the people who occupy the highest positions in the hierarchical structure of the organization and are responsible for the direction and coordination of operations. drug trafficking. To do this, they personally oversaw the most sensitive activities, such as removing drugs from sea containers or transporting them to the organization’s security posts.
Likewise, it has shown that the core strength of the organization is great. logistics capacity they had to carry out these operations all over the world. In the case of Spain, as the Civil Guards confirmed throughout the operation, they had an infrastructure of Spaniards, some of whom were businessmen or self-employed, who provided them with scope and support to facilitate the entry of drugs into Spain. This support ranged from chartering vehicles and ships to store drugs to establishing and using companies to facilitate the importation of legal merchandise in drug storage locations.
All this was made possible thanks to one important communication and cooperation network During the investigation with other criminal organizations, the agents confirmed conversations between the clan’s main leaders and key members of the Calabrian mafia.
However, as the Civil Guard explains, these alliances have not always reported positive results. Thus, when two tons of cocaine were seized in Algeciras in January of last year, Ergys Dashi, a member of this Albanian clan, was killed next day By two people who shot him while he was eating at a restaurant in Guayaquil.the city where drugs and goods were left.
According to the information obtained, this fact directly related to the loss of the drug in the Port of Algeciras.because Ergys Dashi mediated between European criminal organizations and drug lords in Latin America.
This clan had chiefs fake passports from different European countries, especially Italy and Greece, provided them with a large number of fictitious identities, which made the investigation difficult.
A special case, according to the Civil Guard, was his. leader, Kreshnik Budilla, aka ‘Niko‘ detected more than ten fake IDs. In this way, it has become very difficult to coordinate and combine the criminal acts that different European police forces attribute to this criminal organisation.
He also stated that through this investigation he had established his innocence. posing as a police inspector from his home country, with research qualifications throughout the European Union. The card and police badge in question were able to interfere with the search made at his home in Madrid.
In addition, photographs of Kreshnik Budilla during the operation were also found. He used the Civil Guard uniform on his vehicle trips through Spanish territory. thus, he avoided being identified and later arrested by the international demands that burdened him.
The investigation was led by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Team (EDOA) of the Algeciras Command Judicial Police Organic Unit (UOPJ), which is supported in the exploit by the Citizen Security Unit (Usecic) and Nucleus of Services.
The device has participated more than 250 representatives from different units Special Response Unit (UEI), Rapid Action Group (GAR), Regional Analysis and Intelligence Center Against Drug Trafficking (CRAIN), Sinological Service and Civil Guards including the Malaga, Madrid, Barcelona and Toledo Commands.
The investigation was led by the 4th Investigation Court of Algeciras and coordinated by the Campo de Gibraltar Drug Enforcement Office.