The authorities intervened a 'pass’ of 600 kilos from Portugal and arrested three residents in the Basque Country who entered prison / The criminal network had secure entrances through the Portuguese country and customers on the Cantabrian coast and in France
On December 20, the Civil Guard detained three members of a criminal organization dedicated to international cocaine trafficking in a service station in the Salamanca town of Robliza de Cojos within the framework of the so-called Operation Ergu. The suspects were transporting a stash of 600 kilos of drugs in a motorhome with which they intended to cross Spain. This is one of the largest shipments of this substance intervened on the road in recent years at the national level, similar to the one that was intervened in France in 2022 coming from the Iberian Peninsula. Precisely that country could be the destination of this cache.
The investigations, carried out jointly with the Ertzaintza (Basque Country Police), have made it possible to identify a criminal structure dedicated to the illegal importation of drugs from Ibero-America, destined for the whole of the Cantabrian coast and other countries of the European Union, operating in Portugal as an entry point into the EU and in Spain as a storage and subsequent distribution point.
The criminal network had an active logistical apparatus that facilitated intrapeninsular movement through various means of transport, equipped with double bottom or others in which the ability to transport large quantities of the prohibited substance was sought, as well as impunity and masking in the movements, as is the case of the motorhome that has been intervened, obviating the traceability derived from the use of another means of transport.
The same investigations allowed the investigators to know the practice of a displacement of an important drug shipment, through Portugal, considering the hypothesis that the investigated criminal organization would estimate the Christmas period as the most favorable to carry out displacement safely, at a time when the use of motorhomes corresponds to an ordinary holiday model.
As a result of everything that was done, on the afternoon of December 20, members of the Civil Guard of Cantabria and the Ertzaintza intercepted in the town of Robliza de Cojos, together with the Civil Guard of the Salamanca Command, a motorhome vehicle inside which a total of 600 kilos of cocaine were found and intervened.
In the same context, the driver of the motorhome was arrested, as well as the two occupants of a large-capacity passenger car, French registration, which operated as a shuttle vehicle, used to alert about the presence of police devices and guarantee, at the same time, the custody and security of the prohibited gender object of transportation.
The three arrested persons, men of legal age of Spanish nationality and residents of the Basque Country, were placed at the disposal of the Court of Instruction 2 Laredo, a court competent in the investigation, having been ordered to be sent to prison.
Within the same actions, the Civil Guard and the Ertzaintza carried out three searches in different properties located in the Basque Country, territories of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, where several high-end vehicles with a valuation of more than half a million euros have been intervened, the most important element of which is its high displacement and performance as a guarantee of escape in case of betraying the presence of police devices, money, as well as money counting machines, weighing and packaging elements, all as testimony of the role of distribution of substances and money.
The development of the investigations has also been carried out with the support of the Portuguese Judicial Police.
On December 20, the Civil Guard detained three members of a criminal organization dedicated to international cocaine trafficking in a service station in the Salamanca town of Robliza de Cojos within the framework of the so-called Operation Ergu. The suspects were transporting a stash of 600 kilos of drugs in a motorhome with which they intended to cross Spain. This is one of the largest shipments of this substance intervened on the road in recent years at the national level, similar to the one that was intervened in France in 2022 coming from the Iberian Peninsula. Precisely that country could be the destination of this cache.
The investigations, carried out jointly with the Ertzaintza (Basque Country Police), have made it possible to identify a criminal structure dedicated to the illegal importation of drugs from Ibero-America, destined for the whole of the Cantabrian coast and other countries of the European Union, operating in Portugal as an entry point into the EU and in Spain as a storage and subsequent distribution point.
The criminal network had an active logistical apparatus that facilitated intrapeninsular movement through various means of transport, equipped with double bottom or others in which the ability to transport large quantities of the prohibited substance was sought, as well as impunity and masking in the movements, as is the case of the motorhome that has been intervened, obviating the traceability derived from the use of another means of transport.
The same investigations allowed the investigators to know the practice of a displacement of an important drug shipment, through Portugal, considering the hypothesis that the investigated criminal organization would estimate the Christmas period as the most favorable to carry out displacement safely, at a time when the use of motorhomes corresponds to an ordinary holiday model.
As a result of everything that was done, on the afternoon of December 20, members of the Civil Guard of Cantabria and the Ertzaintza intercepted in the town of Robliza de Cojos, together with the Civil Guard of the Salamanca Command, a motorhome vehicle inside which a total of 600 kilos of cocaine were found and intervened.
In the same context, the driver of the motorhome was arrested, as well as the two occupants of a large-capacity passenger car, French registration, which operated as a shuttle vehicle, used to alert about the presence of police devices and guarantee, at the same time, the custody and security of the prohibited gender object of transportation.
The three arrested persons, men of legal age of Spanish nationality and residents of the Basque Country, were placed at the disposal of the Court of Instruction 2 Laredo, a court competent in the investigation, having been ordered to be sent to prison.
Within the same actions, the Civil Guard and the Ertzaintza carried out three searches in different properties located in the Basque Country, territories of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, where several high-end vehicles with a valuation of more than half a million euros have been intervened, the most important element of which is its high displacement and performance as a guarantee of escape in case of betraying the presence of police devices, money, as well as money counting machines, weighing and packaging elements, all as testimony of the role of distribution of substances and money.
The development of the investigations has also been carried out with the support of the Portuguese Judicial Police.