Police in Spain have arrested eight members of a Chinese criminal gang as part of an investigation which had discovered a large shipment of cannabis had been sent to Ireland.
A spokesperson for the Spanish Police said, “National Police officers have dismantled an active criminal organisation based in Madrid and dedicated to international drug trafficking through courier services.”
“Detectives have arrested eight people and carried out seven searches at residential addresses and warehouses in Madrid and the nearby towns of Leganes and Humanes.”
“The investigation, codenamed Operation Gaveta, has demonstrated the gang’s links to 150 kilos of cannabis sent to Ireland, Holland and Finland; 1.5 kilos of a mixture of coffee with ketamine, ecstasy and methamphetamines to Dubai; and 2.4 kilos of ketamine to Mexico.”
“The initial investigation into the Chinese gang showed three pallets used to hide an important amount of marihuana buds had been sent to Ireland from warehouses in the towns of Parla and Humanes near Madrid.” he said.
“Thanks to the cooperation of the companies that owned the premises where the drugs seized were stored, officers managed to identify several members of the organisation and discover they had been smuggling drugs abroad using similar techniques.”
Illustrating how the gang changed their “modus operandi” by” by shrinking the amount of drugs sent in each shipment and using courier services to send packages to named people and companies in order to avoid detection, the spokesman added: “To do so they used stolen ID documents belonging to foreigners.”
Last July Europol said its actions led to the arrests of 27 people in Spain where The Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional), supported by Europol, “dismantled a criminal network involved in drug trafficking and laundering large sums of criminal profits.”
“The investigation was initiated in 2021 based on a Europol intelligence report, which led to the identification of a drug trafficking organisation. The criminal group was led by Albanian nationals and was active in the production and trafficking of marijuana, but also organised large-scale money laundering activities for drug trafficking organisations.”
“They used the so-called hawala system of underground banking, while working closely with Chinese nationals.” it said
Europol says the “hawaladars”, of Albanian origin, “operated as an illegal banking entity, carried out the transfers and concealed large sums of money from the sale of drugs.”
This it says “served for the financing of new criminal operations. The criminal network was headed by two Albanian nationals, of whom one was the leader while the other “took the role of lieutenant and accountant.”
The two Chinese nationals worked for them “as coordinators by managing a large portfolio of numerous Asian establishments spread throughout Spain, which serviced money laundering schemes for drug trafficking profits.” it said.