The court is examining whether J.G., the head of the Organized Crime Drug Unit (Udyco) of the National Police, who was detained by Internal Affairs and has been jailed since Thursday over alleged ties to traffickers, helped decades ago to permit 300 kilograms of cocaine to enter through the Port of Cartagena, according to sources familiar with the case.
At that time, J.G. led Udyco in the city’s port authority, where, as his superiors noted when they awarded him in 2014 a police merit medal, he managed a unit that was especially active in thwarting the trafficking of narcotics via the port.
Months of Investigations
The officer spent his first night this Friday in the Sangonera prison in Murcia, closely watched by a trusted fellow inmate who sits beside him to prevent self-harm and to provide company in the early days of detention. The inspector is housed in Module 4, the intake wing, and sources close to the case described his first night as challenging.
When J.G. was arrested, the investigation had been shaping for months and included wiretaps, approved by the head of Murcia’s Instruction Court No. 7, through which suspected irregularities by the inspector were detected.
The case remains formally sealed, though sources point to administrative prevarication and possible bribery as among the charges facing J.G., who allegedly did business with individuals he was supposed to pursue.
Searches at His Home
The High Court informed on Thursday at noon that several search operations had been carried out days earlier at judicial offices in Murcia, Molina de Segura, and San Javier, as part of a secret-ordered procedure investigating drug trafficking activities. In this context, sources close to the case specified that one of the searches targeted the inspector J.G.’s residence.
Indeed, those same sources indicate that among the arrestees were relatives of this prominent unit member and a regional entrepreneur. The relatives of the inspector who were implicated in the alleged illicit activities of the officer were released after appearing before the Murcia Court No. 7 on Thursday.
Investigators also examined police facilities, specifically the Sangonera offices where Udyco has its operations, seeking any sign that could demonstrate the unit’s commander’s involvement.
On Thursday, J.G. was escorted from the holding cells where he had slept two nights to the facilities of Murcia’s City of Justice. There he awaited the presiding judge and the deputy Anti-Drug Prosecutor before being transferred to Sangonera prison.
Awarded for Fighting Drug Trafficking
A decade earlier, the inspector now under suspicion was honored with the Cross of Police Merit with red insignia for his role in a major drug investigation conducted in Cartagena, where he was stationed at the time. Specifically, he led the Udyco unit at the port city’s police station, and his team was notably active that year in stopping drug shipments via the port.
He received the distinction during a ceremony held in Belluga to mark the patron saints of the force, the Holy Guardians, in 2014.