A total of fourteen of those arrested in operation ‘Grajuela’with which the largest network of ‘drug transporters’ in the Strait has been dismantled, will enter provisional prison after being brought to justice this Wednesday in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), according to police sources.
It is worth remembering that in a joint operation between Customs Surveillance officials of the Tax Agency, agents of the National Police, Civil Guard and the Judicial Police of Portugal, and coordinated by the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office of Jerez de la Frontera, they have dismantled the largest network of drug transporters in the Straitwith 31 arrests, of which twelve were already in prison.
In addition, the practice of 24 home records and up to four operations of the organization were aborted and three short weapons, 1.4 million euros in cash, 19 high-end vehicles, communication systems, computer equipment, two ‘narco-boats’ in the Portuguese country and three other vessels in Spain.
As explained, the operations center was located in a luxurious urbanization in Lisbonfrom where a historic drug trafficker directed and coordinated all naval operations. They also had infrastructure and a wide network of collaborators in the Cadiz town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the ringleaders of the network originated.
The investigation confirmed that the leaders of the organizationoriginally from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, used this Cadiz city as base of operations in Spain, due to the perfect knowledge they had of the area and its orography, as well as the large network of collaborators they had in said municipality.
The organization had an average of between eight and ten EAV vessels -High Speed Vessels-, known as ‘narcolanchas’, which were in the water at all times with their respective crews, as well as a large network of small boats that were used to provide the previous ones with everything necessary, such as food or gasoline.
The investigation began in May of last year, when agents detected that the criminal organization tried to collect a shipment of 6,000 kilos of cocaine of a ‘narco-submarine’ from South America. However, the mechanical problems that the boat suffered during the voyage caused it to sink, which thwarted the criminal action.
From that moment on, the police investigations revolved around the functioning of the organization’s structure, proving that its leaders were based in the Cádiz towns of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Chipiona and El Cuervo (Seville).
