Officers from the National Police and Customs Surveillance officials of the Tax Agency, in collaboration with the National Crime Agency, have dismantled a criminal organisation led by a historic British drug trafficker and have intervened more than a ton and a half of hashish. The investigation has been coordinated by the Campo de Gibraltar Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation began last year and focused on a British citizen, resident in a luxurious urbanisation in Cádiz, who was engaged in the transport of hashish by sea. This man, a former member of the British Royal Navy with extensive nautical knowledge, was known for years by the agents given his close relationship with international drug trafficking and his links with criminal organisations based in European countries such as the United Kingdom and Ukraine, territories likely to be the receptors of the narcotic substance.
Boat sale and rental companies
This man had several companies dedicated to the sale and rental of boats that he used to transport drugs. He also created shell companies to introduce money from drug trafficking into the legal economic circuit.
After the first investigations, the agents were able to verify the relationship of the suspect with different individuals living in the autonomous city of Ceuta, members of the criminal organisation that supplies hashish, with which he organised drug transport using sailing and recreational boats.
High degree of professionalism
During the investigation, the agents verified the high degree of professionalism of the organisation, whose members adopted strict security measures, both with regard to their communications and when carrying out any type of displacement. This control was increased at the time of holding the meetings in which the criminal acts were planned. These encounters took place in places that made police work difficult, and to go to them, the suspect used private boats, even traveling on several occasions during the same day, trying to avoid public transport, thus avoiding leaving a trace of personal data in the transport companies.
The first phase of the investigation took place in August 2020, when the criminal organisation was preparing the transport of drugs on board a boat, which was intervened in the Ceuta marina when the members of the group had loaded it with almost 600 kilograms of hashish. Three months later, those investigated planned a new drug transport. On this occasion they used a pleasure boat, which was intercepted in the Sotogrande marina in Cádiz, loaded with a ton of hashish.
Finally, last week the operational exploitation was carried out with the arrest of ten people in the autonomous city of Ceuta and in the provinces of Cádiz and Málaga. In the searches carried out, the agents have intervened more than 5,800 euro in cash, a simulated pistol, a taser pistol, knives and a drone, in addition to five high-end vehicles and three boats – a sailboat and two yachts.