The Civil Guard, within the framework of the VIA FORA operation, developed by the Group of Teams Against Organized Crime of the UCO in collaboration with EUROPOL, the British NCA, and the OCN-INTERPOL of the DIJIN (Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol ) of the National Police of the Republic of Colombia, has dismantled an international criminal organization based on the island of Ibiza dedicated to the production, importation and distribution of narcotic substances.
Yesterday, the Civil Guard carried out 12 house searches in the towns of Sant Josep de Sa Talaia, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Es Cubells and Ibiza, which resulted in the arrest of a total of 12 people so far, those being investigated for crimes against public health, illicit possession of firearms and belonging to a criminal organization.
In a coordinated manner, members of the National Police of the Republic of Colombia proceeded to arrest two other components of the criminal organization who had recently traveled to Colombia to negotiate the acquisition of large quantities of cocaine.
In house searches, 13.25 kg of “2CB” (pink cocaine) have been seized, being the largest seizure of this substance in Spain. In addition, 16.4 kg of cocaine, 5.6 kg of ketamine, 87,000 individual doses (tablets) of various substances, 439,000 euros in cash, 30,000 pounds sterling, 12,000 dollars, 10 medium and high-end vehicles, and several luxury watches.
Likewise, 3 short firearms and 1 submachine gun with a silencer have been seized, all of them of illicit origin, which would confirm the extremely violent nature of the now dismantled criminal organisation, since they would be used to guarantee the collection of drugs distributed to other organisations. as well as to carry out “overturns” (theft of drug shipments from other organisations).
On the other hand, 11 vehicles owned by members of the criminal organisation, a large number of mobile phone terminals, computer systems and relevant documentation in the investigation have been seized.
Due to the extreme danger of some of the components of the criminal structure now dismantled, these actions have had the support of the UEI (Special Intervention Unit) and the GAR (Rapid Action Group), in addition to the GRS 2 and the USECIC of the Balearic Islands.
The Civil Guard has also had the support of EUROPOL, the British NCA, and the collaboration of Dutch, Irish and German authorities.
200 KG
The Civil Guard and the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Santa Cruz de Tenerife have seized 200 kilograms of cocaine that was attached inside one of the refrigeration nozzles of the Nord Mamore ship. The operation took place while the ship was making a technical stop to refuel on its route from Brazil to the port of Lisbon.
The intervention has been the result of one of the anchoring visits that the Fiscal Protection and Borders Section of the Civil Guard of the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has been carrying out jointly with the Combined Customs Surveillance Unit of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
These types of visits are made in order to control the cargo of the ships. In this case, in the early hours of August 5, a visit was made to the cargo ship called Nord Mamore, which was anchored in anchorage zone number 2 of the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to refuel. The declared cargo was corn and its destination was the port of Lisbon.
During the course of the inspection of the cargo and the rest of the common areas of the vessel, up to a total of eight bundles were detected. The discovery was made during the review of a cooling water intake nozzle for the ship’s machinery, carried out from outside the hull by personnel from the Civil Guard’s underwater activities team (GEAS).
These bundles were tied inside the nozzle and to each other when they were located by the divers. After analyzing them, it turned out that the presence of narcotic substances, specifically cocaine, was detected inside, yielding a weight of 200 kilograms once the contents of the packages containing the bundles were weighed.
