Spanish police on Friday announced the takedown of a major network transporting Latin American cocaine into Europe by boat in an international operation involving 50 arrests across eight countries.
The investigation was started by police in Spain and Britain in June 2020 but quickly expanded, drawing in forces from 11 different countries and backed by Europol, Europe’s policing agency, a Spanish police statement said.
In total, they confiscated 1.5 tonnes of cocaine and seized eight vessels used for shifting their product from Latin American and Caribbean nations to Spain.
The narcotics were shipped from loading points in Brazil, Colombia, Guayana, Trinidad and Tobago, Santa Lucia, Barbados and Panama to Spanish ports in the Canary Islands, the southern region of Andalusia and the eastern city of Valencia
The leader, who was arrested in Norway, is a veteran drug smuggler known as “The Professor”, the statement said.
He has had “more than 20 years” in the business, winning him the “full confidence of the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels” with whom he coordinated the shipments, it added.
The network also included members of the so-called “Balkans’ cartel” who were “living the high life” in Spain’s southern Costa del Sol, the statement said.
But there was also a spiritual element, police said.
“The criminal organisation would appeal to a santero (witchdoctor) to receive his blessing and for the success of its cocaine transportation operations between Latin America and Europe,” it said.
Seeking a santero’s blessing is a key element of Santeria, an Afro-Cuban belief system that fuses African religions with Catholicism and which is very popular in Latin America.
Of the detainees, 26 were arrested in Spain, among them 16 Norwegians — one of whom was a former bank robber, who also targeted armoured cash-in-transit vehicles and had spent 15 years behind bars for violence.
The other 24 suspected gang members were arrested in Bulgaria, Colombia, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and the UK.
Most of the arrests took place on June 24, Europol said.
In Spain, one of the main gateways into Europe for Latin American cocaine, police regularly raid drug smugglers, with the last major raid in June involving eight tonnes of cocaine with 40 arrests.