Agents of the National Police have detained, at the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas Airport, the head of an organisation allegedly dedicated to large-scale drug trafficking. The man was arrested under an European Arrest Warrant, issued by Germany, in the framework of a simultaneous action carried out in three countries. The operation began as a result of an investigation by the Berlin Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Criminal Investigation Office carried out on a criminal organisation based in the metropolitan area of the city of Berlin, dedicated to the illegal trafficking of cocaine and money laundering.
The operation was carried out as a result of an investigation, initiated in 2018 by the Berlin Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Criminal Investigation Office, carried out on an international organisation that was allegedly involved in the importation of almost 5,000 kilos of cocaine, after the seizure of 690 kilograms of this drug in a container bound for Germany from Brazil. This criminal group, based in the metropolitan area of the city of Berlin, was dedicated to the trafficking of cocaine and money laundering.
High danger of the fugitive and high risk of flight
The arrest of the alleged head of the criminal network occurred thanks to the information received from the German authorities, who warned about his arrival in Madrid and requested collaboration for his arrest at the time of entry on Spanish soil so that it would be simultaneous with the other arrests. In this way, the intention was to guarantee the success of the operation given the high danger of the fugitive and the high risk of escape in the event of being notified of the police device by another member of the organisation.
The police established a device at the exit of the plane from Costa Rica, in which the fugitive was located among the passengers who were leaving the aircraft. When the suspects identified him, the man tried to evade his identification by displaying false German documentation. Finally, he was arrested both by the German OEDE and for a crime of falsification of documents.
They hid their activity with a network of shell companies
As a result of the international arrangement, this highly branched international organisation, which had been operating since at least 2011, has been dismantled. The group hid its activity with a network of shell companies and had several false documents that made it difficult to identify its members. The criminal organisation specialised in facilitating the logistics to bring large quantities of cocaine into Germany inside steel girders.
In the deployment, in which more than 220 police officers in Germany, Latvia and Spain participated, 14 people between 22 and 62 years of age were arrested. There were also entries and registrations in more than 40 establishments in the three countries. In addition, eight financial freezing resolutions with a total value of more than 14 million euro were executed.
