Laurence Dollimore
THIS is the moment armed police carried out a series of raids against an international drug cartel in southern Spain.
Footage shared by the Guardia Civil shows armed officers with riot shields and helmets storming a number of properties across Huelva, Sevilla, Granada and Malaga.
The operation is said to have dismantled a ‘powerful international crime gang’, with a total of 31 people arrested across Andalucia.
The raids began on December 18, with authorities seizing 278kg of cocaine, 3.8 tonnes of hashish, 180 cannabis plants and more than €500,000 in cash.
The Guardia Civil said it also recovered various ‘weapons of war’, with footage of the haul showing snipers and AK-47s.
The suspects face a number of charges, including belonging to a criminal organisation, possessing and carrying weapons of war, money laundering, smuggling, falsifying documents, vehicle theft and more.
The probe began after the Guardia Civil began looking into a ‘very active’ mafia with links to Colombia, Panama and Portugal.
The group allegedly focused on trafficking cocaine and cannabis resin from South America and Africa into Europe.
The crime group is said to have used shipping containers, sailboats and high-speed vessels to deliver the narcotics by sea.
Authorities said they also used private planes and smaller aircraft to traffick the drugs.
Other items seized included five properties, a jet ski, 10 vehicles, computer devices and cryptocurrency documents.
Meanwhile, 51 bank accounts have been frozen via a court order.
The investigation was the work of a collaboration involving the USA’s DEA, the UK’s NCA, Portugal’s GNR, France’s OFAST and Europol.
