Spanish police seize 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in Galicia and arrest Croatian citizen
Spanish agents discovered the drug in a property near the Galician coast; among those arrested is a Croatian citizen who, according to investigators, acted as a "notary" of the smuggling operation.
Spanish police seize 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in Galicia and arrest Croatian citizen
The agents discovered the drug in a property near the sea, where it had apparently been stored temporarily, according to the newspaper La Voz de Galicia and reported by the Croatian news agency Hina.
The coast of the autonomous community of Galicia is one of the main entry routes for cocaine shipments from South America arriving in Spain. In recent years, investigators have uncovered connections between local criminal organisations and individuals from former Yugoslav countries, including Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia.
In this operation, the authorities will attempt to determine whether any criminal group from that European region is involved.
The arrested Croatian national is attributed by investigators with the role of "notary", tasked with overseeing the smuggling operation and protecting the interests of one of the criminal groups involved. According to police, his function included, among other tasks, controlling the delivery and quantity of narcotics, as well as verifying that agreed conditions were being met.
Last May, Spanish police intercepted between 30 and 40 tonnes of cocaine on a vessel in international waters near the Canary Islands, a record figure for the country, and arrested around 20 people.
Source: Google News SI — Crime (sl)