Elena Gocmen Rueda
THREE police officers have been arrested and accused of charging smugglers thousands of euros to turn a blind eye to a 750kg shipment of hashish.
They each pocketed €7,500 and agreed not to intercept the shipment from Morocco. The members of the Guardia Civil also kept the criminals informed of police patrols.
They are now set to stand trial in Malaga after being caught by a special investigation into police corruption.
According to the prosecutor, the Guardia Civil’s internal affairs service began an investigation to ‘uncover police corruption activities by members of the force linked to criminal organisations trafficking in narcotic substances’.
This began with one agent and led to the discovery of others, ‘forming an organised and hierarchical group whose purpose was to help traffick narcotics’.
Thus, these agents ‘would provide security at the time of carrying out the criminal act’, as they allegedly ‘took advantage of the time when they were carrying out their police service to allow the unloading of drugs, to inform about service devices, timetables and places of patrols’.
One of the civil guards was allegedly in charge of contacting the criminal organisations concerned and of coordinating and directing the work to be carried out with these networks, “setting prices according to the services required”, says the prosecutor.
The other two agents “collaborated with him, carrying out his orders and obtaining his economic compensation for such activity”.
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