Agents of the National Police, in a joint operation with the Guardia Civil and the Tax Agency, have dismantled a criminal group allegedly dedicated to smuggling heroin, cocaine and hashish, and have arrested eleven people as alleged perpetrators of a crime of drug trafficking.
The operation began at the beginning of January, upon learning of the existence of a criminal organisation based in the provinces of Ourense and Pontevedra dedicated to the importation of consignments of drugs and their provisional storage in security garages to later be distributed to different traffickers in the area. During the months of January to March 2021, numerous joint surveillance operations were carried out on some of the alleged members of the organisation. These surveillance allowed the obtaining of numerous criminal indications, the identification of those involved and knowing part of the modus operandi carried out to materialise their criminal activity.
The operational work carried out and the various investigative measures requested and authorised under the legal proceeding initiated, as well as other data obtained through information from international police collaboration agencies, revealed that this organisation had several vehicles that had been altered to house “double funds” or “coves” to hide consignments of narcotic substances and transport them periodically by road to Ourense. These substances were temporarily stored in two security garages in the city, until their subsequent distribution in various parts of Galicia and León. Similarly, they had other security garages in Ourense and Pontevedra for the custody of the vehicles they used for transfers.
In the framework of the investigation, it was proven that all the tasks necessary to carry out drug trafficking and distribution were perfectly compartmentalised and distributed in the criminal group’s operation. Periodically, several members of the organisation travelled to Madrid, Seville and Pontevedra to collect the drug in the prepared vehicles, while others in “shuttle” and “counter-surveillance” functions ensured their journey to the garages in Ourense, where they stored and then they distributed.
Operation carried out in three phases
In the first place, one person was arrested in Ourense and another two were charged, and, after entering several parking spaces, 43,000 grams of hashish, 2,700 grams of marijuana, a vehicle and numerous effects related to the illicit activities discovered (annotations, mobile phones, precision scales, packaging …).
Subsequently, the leader of the organisation and two other individuals were arrested in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra), and 5,500 grams of heroin were seized. Two other people were also detained in Ourense, who, after conducting searches in homes and garages, were seized 229 grams of heroin, 985 grams of hashish, 3,200 euro, a hydraulic press, a bottling machine, mobile phones and various documentation .
In a third phase, two more individuals were detained in Carballino (Ourense), when they transported 4,600 grams of cocaine from Pontevedra to Ourense, for delivery to two other members of the group who were later arrested. Several house searches were carried out in which 15,000 euro in cash, a vehicle and various effects and documentation related to the fraudulent operations were seized.
The detainees have been made available to the Court of Instruction number two of Ourense, which decreed the entry into prison of the leader of the group and six others in the Penitentiary Centre of Pereiro de Aguiar (Ourense).