Cristina Hodgson
ELEVEN kilograms of gummy bears impregnated with 25N-NBOMe, a hallucinogenic substance better known as “La Bomba”, have been seized by police in the province of Malaga.
The operation is the result of a crackdown on organised crime on the Costa del Sol where Spain’s National Police have managed to dismantle an alleged international criminal gang based in the Malaga towns of Benalmadena, Alhaurin el Grande and Coin.
A total of seven arrests have been made in which 3,700 grams of toxic and psychotropic substances, 2,065 grams of marijuana, 1,065 grams and 500 millilitres of cutting substance, €900 in cash, several scales, a press, a packaging machine and material for shipments were seized, among other things.
According to a police statement, the gang, allegedly involved in international drug trafficking, used postal and courier services as a distribution channel.
The alert was given when one of the main courier services became aware of a series of parcels that were suspected of containing drugs.
After obtaining permission from the judicial authority, the investigators involved in the operation opened 209 parcels which turned out to contain 1,762 grams of different designer drugs, in different formats and configurations.
Most of the drugs seized were reportedly controlled substance derivatives, substances with similar effects on users as MDMA (better known as ecstasy), ketamine, cocaine or mephedrone, but with slight changes in their composition, making them ‘new’ and therefore outside the official list of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
The investigations led the agents to identify the leader of the organisation, a British citizen resident in Alhaurin el Grande. The police found that the suspect had stockpiled all the material necessary to make the shipments and that he used several collaborators to distribute the parcels.
During the investigation phase, seven searches were carried out in various houses, farms, warehouses and premises in Benalmadena, Cartama, Alhaurin el Grande and Malaga.
The investigation is now in the hands of Instruction No. 1 of Torremolinos (Malaga), pending on the opening of 126 more parcels.
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