Joshua Parfitt
A GUARDIA Civil operation has resulted in the seizure of 250kg of cocaine that arrived at the Port of Valencia hidden among the pieces of a helicopter.
The aircraft was dismantled in a South American country after being used in a campaign to prevent forest fires, and on Saturday it arrived at the port of Valencia in containers.
Port workers took the helicopter to the APM Terminals Valencia facilities, specifically to a restricted access area controlled by security guards.
According to investigations, a member of the gang must have got spooked by police surveillance or for another unknown reason and not come for the delivery.
The Risk Analysis Unit (UAR), a group made up of civil guards from the Valencia Office of Fiscal Analysis and Investigation and agents from the Tax Agency, later identified the illicit drug and seized the 250kg.
There were no arrests in the operation.
This criminal tactic, known as a blind hook or ‘rip-off’, consists of hiding the cocaine in a container with legal merchandise in the country of origin, without the knowledge of the exporter or importer, and then withdrawing the drug at the port destination before the cargo reaches the end of the route.
In this way, the drug traffickers often bypass customs controls in Valencia.
The cocaine stash is valued at 8.5 million euros, according to a first estimate by the Central Narcotics Office.
