A gang that introduced 1,200 kilos of cocaine hidden in maritime containers with glue for ceramics and bananas falls

A joint operation between the Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, the National Police, the Anti-Narcotics Directorate of the Colombian National Police, the American Homeland Security Investigations and the Ecuadorian authorities made it possible to dismantle a gang of drug traffickers who introduced 1,200 kilos of cocaine hidden in three maritime containers from South America that arrived at the ports of Barcelona and Valencia. There are seven detainees in this operation that began with the arrival at the port of Barcelona of a container with bags of glue for ceramics and a month later a second shipment was detected to Valencia with bananas. Inside the drug was found hidden.

The investigators also identified a business network created by the organization for the receipt of cocaine shipments in Spain, focusing its activity on the main company based in Valencia.. At the end of last January, three containers were sent from the port of Cartagena to Barcelona, declaring sacks of glue for ceramics as legal merchandise.. After inspecting them, among the merchandise in one of the containers, they intercepted 1,003 packages of cocaine that yielded a gross weight of 1,124 kilos.

As a result of this intervention, the gang changed the company that received the containers to avoid being detected.. In March, two new containers from Guayaquil (Ecuador) arrived at the port of Valencia. The agents surprised the suspects when they were taking out the drugs in an industrial warehouse owned by the company they controlled, which precipitated the arrest of five people.. In the two containers, 130 packages of cocaine with a gross weight of 143 kilos were found.. A vehicle with a hidden compartment in the rear of the passenger compartment to carry the drug was also located on the ship.

In the search of the homes of the suspects, including the main person in charge of the gang, 80,000 euros in cash and nine mobile phones were found, some of them with encrypted communications.. The agents investigated the people who were in charge of the expenses and documentary procedures for the importation of the merchandise, the acquisition of vehicles, as well as the managers of another company to which the reception of the first container in Barcelona in which it had been diverted. found more than a ton of cocaine.