ANDALUCIA – The Guardia Civil as part of Operation Zurich has dismantled a criminal Polish drug trafficking organisation. It was based in the province of Malaga but with connections in Murcia, Cadiz, and Granada.
The operation began with information from the Polish Police of a criminal organisation operating in Spain. And transporting drugs to northern Europe. The police warned members of the drug trafficking organisation would be dangerous as they had numerous criminal records including drug trafficking, kidnapping, and torture.
“Lookouts”
Following an investigation, it was found some gang members could be living in a house in Manilva, Andalucia.
However, the gang took many precautions and drove long circuitous routes to check if they were followed. They had various “lookouts” along the way. Furthermore, the leader of the gang is suspected to be in the UK now.
Large quantities of marijuana
It was suspected they could be moving a large quantity of marijuana from Malaga to Granada, from Granada to Cádiz. And finally to Murcia.
The Guardia Civil stopped the truck in Alicante and found 162 kilos of marijuana. The drugs were hidden inside air conditioning units that the van was supposed to be delivering. The two people in the truck were arrested.
Six other locations were searched in Songonera la Seca in Murcia, Estepona and Manilva in Málaga, Pulianas and Pinos Puentes in Granada and in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Cádiz. Here they found a handgun loaded with a magazine, 3 vehicles, €100,000 in cash, two 300 hp outboard motors, money counting, and vacuum packaging machines, as well as 378 kilograms of marijuana buds.
As a result of the successful operation, eleven people have been arrested, five Poles and six Spaniards. In addition, 564 kilograms of marijuana have been seized and a major criminal organisation that was transporting approximately one ton of marijuana per month to northern Europe has been dismantled.
