They try to introduce from Jerez 600 kilos of cocaine in boxes of bananas from Colombia

Major blow to drug trafficking in Jerez de la Frontera. The municipality of Cadiz has been the scene of an important operation carried out by the Tax Agency and the National Police in which 600 kilos of cocaine have been seized. The drug came from South America and they intended to distribute it throughout the national territory camouflaged among legal merchandise.

The business network used maritime containers to transfer the substances from South America to the south of Spain through different companies, with which it imported legal merchandise in order to hide the narcotic substance. As a result of international collaboration and coordination, around 305 kilos of cocaine were seized in the Colombian port of Barranquilla.

From this intervention, the surveillance and monitoring of people related to the business network, who would be the recipients of the illicit merchandise seized in Colombia, were increased.

For all these reasons, seven people have been arrested in the operation for the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization and drug trafficking.

Interventions in Algeciras

Months later, they managed to obtain information on the arrival at the port of Algeciras of two containers suspected of hiding a significant amount of cocaine among the declared legal merchandise of bananas.

The agents proceeded to recognize both containers. In one of them, a total of 244 tablets were found among the legal merchandise, which yielded an approximate gross weight of 300 kilos of cocaine.

Two days later, the container in which the drug was hidden left the port of Algeciras transported in a truck that was destined for the parking lot of an industrial estate in Jerez de la Frontera, where it remained parked overnight.

The police operating device established in the area began to observe strange movements of a vehicle that was clearly in control of the truck's movements. Next, another vehicle appeared at the scene with three people, who interacted with the trucker.

Hiding in a shipment of bananas

After the conversation between the four individuals, the truck driver loaded the truck into a warehouse that was a few meters away. At that time, the acting agents were able to verify that the ship was under construction, not having refrigeration machinery inside to maintain the cold chain of the cargo of bananas that was in the container, a reason that led them to think that the unloading would materialize. in order to collect the narcotic substance hidden among the merchandise.

In this way, the joint action between the Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the National Police surprised, inside the ship, the members of the criminal organization when they unloaded the drug hidden among the boxes of bananas. As a result, the four people who were on the ship were arrested.

At the same time, the agents again detected the vehicle that controlled the truck from early in the morning, noting that it was driven by a member of the organization who, observing the police presence, accelerated with the intention of leaving the area, being intercepted. and stopped.

The arrests ended with the arrest of two other people. On the one hand, the driver of the truck that made the initial journey from the Port of Algeciras to the Jerez de la Frontera industrial estate was arrested, while on the other hand, the co-owner of the importing companies of the two shipments of substance was arrested. narcotic.