Walter Finch
POLICE corruption in Spain has exploded into the spotlight with a combined ten arrests of high-ranking officers ‘working for drug dealers’.
Scandal has rocked a town in Valencia after a local police chief and four of his officers were accused of working for a drug dealer operating a ‘narco-flat’ in the area.
An old school wiretap investigation by the Civil Guard, code-named ‘Operation Connivance,’ has found that the police chief in the town of Silla, just south of Valencia, was not only aware of the drug trafficking but may have actively helped to cover it up.
Among those arrested is a woman who is reported to have been selling drugs from her property for over six years.
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Despite the Policia Local carrying out numerous drug raids and putting away many other drug dealers, the woman’s drug-dealing operation continued untouched.
Recorded conversations the police chief and the drug trafficker discussed drug deals in detail, including discussing upcoming drug deliveries.
According to the Civil Guard, the drug trafficker ran a highly successful ‘narco-flat’, attracting dozens of customers each day – yet the Policia Local appeared to turn a blind eye to the operation.
The police chief was reported to be involved in a number of suspicious activities, including receiving payments from the drug trafficker and blocking investigations into drug trafficking in the town.
The mayor of Silla, Vicente Zaragozá, has defended the police chief, yet the wiretapped conversations suggest that he may have been aware of the police chief’s activities.
The police chief and his officers have yet to be charged as the investigation continues.
Meanwhile, five cops are among 30 people to have been arrested in Alcalá de Guadaira, Sevilla.
The round-up was part of a major Policia Nacional operation against narco traffickers in the region.
The officers arrested were all ‘anti-narco’ cops who were tasked with investigating and arresting the very criminals they are accused of collaborating with.
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Sevilla deputy delegate Francisco Toscano urged caution before jumping to conclusions as ‘we are in the midst of an open investigation that is currently being carried out.’
The Guadalquivir river, which runs through Sevilla, finds itself at the end of Spain’s latest narco hotspot, with a mammoth haul of hashish found in nearby Chipiona.
Five tonnes of the drug were discovered during a boat raid in Chipiona on Sunday night.
The hashish was being transported by a ‘narco’ vessel on the Guadalquivir river.
The contraband was hidden in 138 bales (pictured above), which weighed a total of 5.5 tonnes.
The Guardia Civil made four arrests in the counter narcotics operation.
It comes after a drug trafficker died on the same river earlier this month when his boat overturned during a dramatic police chase.
The fatal operation began on a Saturday night when the Guardia Civil detected eight ‘narco boats’ entering the Guadalquivir River in Cadiz.
The Maritime Service of Cadiz and Huelva gave chase to vessels, aided by a police helicopter.
One of the boats, with four engines and loaded with bales of hashish, was accompanied by a guide vessel.
Once both reached land, they began to unload the drugs, at which point the helicopter began to land next to them.
The crew fled the scene on the largest drug boat, abandoning 47 bales of hashish and guide boat.
