From Torre Pacheco to Planes
A coordinated operation by the Civil Guard and the National Police culminated in the arrest of eight men connected to two crime groups. The suspects faced charges including illegal detention, drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons, and membership in a criminal organization. The arrests spanned several cities across Spain, including Murcia, Alicante, Almería, and Barcelona, following investigations into the disappearance of 1.2 kilos of cocaine and two separate kidnappings in Alcoy and the Murcian town of Torre Pacheco.
The investigation traced back to the disappearance of a person in the Roldán area of Pacheca. The next day, the hostage reappeared unharmed, and authorities pieced together the chronology at the Alcoy bus station, which served as a critical reference point for understanding the events as they unfolded.
Law enforcement learned that the kidnapping began moments after the victim’s vehicle was stopped by a luxury car. The occupants threatened the victim with a firearm and forced her into their car. The victim’s car was later located abandoned on a street near the site of the abduction, a clue that helped investigators reconstruct the sequence of actions taken by the assailants.
Further examination of the case revealed that the captors transported the victim to a location about two hours away. An industrial unit was identified as part of the holding area. The perpetrators removed the victim’s mobile phone, tethered it to a pole, and left it there overnight. The person was released the following morning, with officials noting that the captors claimed they had grabbed the wrong individual and that the release was a result of the misidentification.
From Torre Pacheco to Alcoy, the investigation uncovered a second linked incident. The identity of the first kidnapping victim matched another case where a suspect appeared to be involved in a separate abduction in Alcoy. In this second incident, the assailants also used a weapon and transported the victim in a high-end vehicle to a house in an urban area of Torre Pacheco. The individual was held there for three days, during which an extensive ransom demand was made—more than a kilo of cocaine—to be sent to Morocco. It is believed the detainee was released after the ransom money was handed over by the captor.
From that moment, the National Police and the Civil Guard coordinated a broad operation to connect the dots between the two kidnappings. The agencies sought to determine how the two criminal groups operated, including whether a single mastermind tied the incidents together and whether the groups were involved in the trafficking network for narcotics, including the movement of drugs stolen or diverted within the organizations.
Arrests followed as investigators mapped the suspects’ movements across the country. The eight men were located in different regions—Murcia, Alicante, Almería, and Barcelona—despite their apparent mobility by land and occasional travel to Morocco. The detainees are reported to have extensive criminal histories, with several holdings and seizures linked to prior judicial actions.
The operation involved joint efforts by specialized units, including the Unit Against Illegal Immigration Networks and Documentary Fraud, the Provincial Immigration and Border Brigade, and the Organic Unit of the National Police in Murcia’s Judicial Police. Support came from colleagues in Almería, Alicante, and Barcelona to ensure a coordinated enforcement effort across multiple jurisdictions. The arrests underscore ongoing cooperation between national and regional authorities to disrupt organized crime and curb the trafficking of controlled substances as well as the use of kidnapping as a tool of coercion in criminal enterprises. Cited sources confirm the involvement of these agencies and the scale of the operation, reflecting a sustained commitment to confronting violent crime and cross-border narcotics trafficking.
As investigations continue, authorities emphasize the importance of interagency collaboration and the role of community vigilance in detecting early signs of kidnapping and trafficking schemes. The case illustrates how modern coordinated policing can unravel complex networks that span cities and even transnational routes, bringing to light the mechanisms criminals use to move people and drugs across borders. No further details about specific suspects or ongoing investigations are provided in the public summary, but law enforcement officials assure that the case remains an active priority as more information becomes available through official channels, with ongoing updates following standard judicial procedures as required by law.
In summary, the combined efforts of the Civil Guard and the National Police resulted in the disruption of two linked criminal groups and the arrest of eight individuals across multiple Spanish regions. The operation highlights the persistent threat posed by organized crime and the determined steps taken by authorities to protect citizens, deter kidnapping, and suppress narcotics trafficking, including cross-border considerations that connect the scenes in Alcoy, Torre Pacheco, and beyond.
— Attributions: internal investigative reports and public summaries from the Civil Guard and National Police authorities.