Police dismantle a “powerful” community that used narcolancas to introduce cocaine within the Canary Islands | Spain | EUROtoday

“Paradigma change” within the introduction of cocaine within the Canary Islands from South America. The National Police introduced this Friday the disarticulation of a “powerful” group of drug transporters that had applied within the islands the way in which of working used within the slender: launched the drug into the islands by means of narcolancas and subsequently distributed it to Europe and completely different factors of Africa. In the operation, baptized black shadow, 48 folks (47 Spaniards and a British citizen) have been arrested and 19 boats and aquatic bikes, six buildings, financial institution accounts, three firearms and about 100,000 euros have been intervened.

Police estimate that at the very least 4,000 kilos of narcotics have been seized, though the ultimate quantity in all probability finally ends up being a lot greater, as the primary commissioner Antonio Martínez Duarte, head of the Central Narcotics Brigade (UDYCO) at a press convention at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Beyond the concrete figures of the operation and dismantling of a company that was gaining power, each Martínez Duarte and the Government delegate, Anselmo Pestana, and the Chief of Police within the Canary Islands, Jesús María Gómez Martín, have celebrated what they’ve thought of “a paradigm shift” within the islands. “A dynamic of using Canary Islands has been broken to take drugs to Africa,” stated Pestana. “We have detected how organizations had changed their routes and means of transport to operate on the Atlantic facade,” defined the Government delegate. “We want to remain the brake, the retaining wall so that these organizations change their plans, we want to traffic in Spain and in the Canary Islands.”

The law enforcement officials have detailed that within the operation, directed from the Central Court of Instruction quantity 3 of the National Court, they’ve labored as much as 500 brokers of each the islands and the Peninsula. In addition, it has had the collaboration of how the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom (NCA), the United States Anti-Drug Agency (Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA), Europol, and the Center for Analysis and Maritime Operations in drug trafficking (MAOC-N), primarily based in Lisbon, along with authorities of France, Poland, Portugal, Colombia and Cabo Verde. “There are many months of research, international collaboration has been very important,” stated Martínez Duarte.

The investigations highlighted the existence of a prison community that operated from Colombia and Brazil to the Canarian archipelago. It launched massive quantities of cocaine within the Spanish territory by means of excessive pace vessels. This system, generally known as go quick, consists en using excessive -speed automobiles to keep away from police surveillance and cross borders with massive quantities of narcotics. The methodology has even developed to adapt to terrestrial roads and routes.

These drugports operated with a hierarchy. First, there have been these in control of shifting the drug, particularly cocaine, from a load level in South America to the waters close to the Canary Islands. They used, for this, a nurse ship that might be a sailboat or a semi -rigid vessel. Once the Atlantic was crossed, the merchandise was handed to quick boats. According to the police pressure, they resorted to encrypted communications, satellite tv for pc terminals and a encoded language to keep away from being detected and hinders any police investigation. In addition, the investigation revealed that they used an deserted wreck in Lanzarote that was semi -half as a refueling platform for quick boats or boats. They even situated quite a few jackets and empty petacas that subsequently transferred to this boat. The final level was the touchdown on little busy seashores or secondary port areas.

The investigations led to a police operation on Tuesday that carried out 29 information in Lanzarote (14), Gran Canaria (13) and Fuerteventura (2). In them, roughly 100,000 euros had been intervened, quite a few financial institution accounts of as much as 9 completely different entities, medication destined for medium -scale site visitors, three brief firearms, ample documentation and helpful for maritime site visitors akin to satellite tv for pc telephones and geolocation units. “Not only drug trafficking is avoided, but also money laundering,” stated Anselmo Pestana.

The efforts of this group to introduce cocaine with this methodology, by which the quantities are decrease than these that may be camouflaged in containers by means of the ports, very guarded, are partially consequently, of the police seizure in October final yr within the port of Algeciras of 13 tons of cocaine hidden in a cargo of bananas, and that turned the biggest intervened within the nation till in the present day. This investigation allowed to dismantle an vital group directed from Dubai that offered them with “a safe route for the entry of the drug” that was now misplaced, police sources clarify. Hence the makes an attempt to attempt to overcome and discover new methods.

The quantities of cocaine seized have risen 30% all through Europe in 2023, the final yr of which official information is obtainable. Belgium (123 tons), Spain (118 tons) and the Netherlands (59 tons) accumulate nearly three quarters (72%) of the full quantity seized, which highlights its function as key entry factors for cocaine site visitors to Europe, though the preliminary information of 2024 means that the scenario is altering. The final European drug report, offered this Thursday in Lisbon, signifies that different entrance international locations akin to Germany (43 tons), France (23 tons) and Portugal (22 tons) are getting used.