Spanish police have announced that they have dismantled a major network transporting Latin American cocaine into Europe by boat in an international operation involving 50 arrests in eight countries.
The investigation was launched by police in Spain and the UK in June 2020, but has grown rapidly, involving forces from 11 different countries and backed by Europol, the European police agency, Spanish police said in a statement, AFP reported.
In total, they have seized 1.5 tonnes of cocaine and seized eight vessels used to transfer their product from Latin American and Caribbean countries to Spain.
The drugs were being transported 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 handler, who was arrested in Norway, is a veteran drug smuggler known as "The Professor", the statement said.
He had "more than 20 years" in the business, which earned him "the full confidence of the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels" with whom he coordinated shipments, the statement added.
The network also included members of the so-called "Balkan Cartel" who were "living high on the hog" in southern Spain's Costa del Sol, the statement said.
But there was also a spiritual element, police say.
"The criminal organisation turned to the santero (fortune teller) to obtain his blessing and for the success of its operations to transport cocaine between Latin America and Europe," the report said.
Seeking the blessing of a santero is a key element of santería, an Afro-Cuban belief system that combines African religions with Catholicism and is very popular in Latin America.
Of those arrested, 26 were arrested in Spain, including 16 Norwegians - one of them a former bank robber who also targeted armoured vehicles with cash and 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 were made on June 24, Europol said.
In Spain, one of the main gateways to Europe for Latin American cocaine, police regularly raid drug smugglers, with the last major raid in June seizing eight tonnes of cocaine and making 40 arrests. | BGNES
