Dilip Kuner
POLICE have arrested 14 people and seized two assault rifles as they busted what they describe as one of Malaga’s most active cocaine trafficking gangs.
The criminals operated a number of cover companies to launder their gains including an unnamed luxury restaurant in Puerto Banus and an exclusive horse-riding school.
The investigation began last April, when police intercepted a van loaded with 80 kgs of cocaine which led them to a flat where another 1,380 kgs of the drug were seized and five people were arrested.
Weeks later, the agents seized an arsenal of weapons inside a vehicle belonging to the same network, including two M16A1 assault rifles and abundant ammunition.
During the investigations, the Guardia Civil and Policia Nacional backed by Europol seized more consignments of drugs and weapons, and dismantled several smaller criminal groups that supported the network.
Then finally last week the ‘definitive blow’ was struck against the different branches of the organisation based in Malaga.
More than 350 police took part in 18 raids, most of them in Marbella, which led to the arrest of 14 people and the seizure of a dozen vehicles, several of them with hiding places for weapons, money and drugs.
Those arrested in the last phase of the operation have been handed over to the judicial authorities, who remanded 11 of them in custody.
READ MORE:
‘Well-organised’ cocaine gang on Spain’s Costa Blanca is brought to justice
Police in Spain bust drug smuggling gang who disguised cocaine as charcoal
