Four Colombians from an international drug gang arrested in Spain

Madrid, 22 Mar Spanish security forces have arrested nine people, four of them of Colombian nationality, suspected of forming an international drug trafficking gang based in Madrid, which allegedly introduced cocaine through ports. The drug, according to the investigation, came from South America, was routinely hidden in the acids of the batteries of industrial mechanical bulls (forklifts) and later distributed in cars equipped with a hidden compartment, the Spanish police reported on Tuesday. The arrests were made in the provinces of Madrid, Ciudad Real (center) and Valencia (east). The investigation began in 2017, when it was detected, thanks to international police cooperation, a criminal organization established in the capital of Spain dedicated to international drug trafficking. It mainly used the import of freight containers to receive the drugs in the ports of Barcelona (Spain) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). In September 2021, investigators received information from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). About this band, specifically about the two main ones investigated, of Colombian nationality. On the basis of numerous investigations and surveillance operations, the agents gathered sufficient evidence to prove the existence of this organization, which was also engaged in money laundering through a front company. At the end of last February, the police detected a suspicious truck coming from Barcelona, which was transporting industrial mechanical bulls to the town of Madridejos, in the province of Toledo (center). The machinery was tapped and police technicians needed four days to discover the novel drug concealment system, consisting of 32 packages of cocaine weighing sixty kilos. CHIEF jfs.lca/jl/jac