The disarticulation of a criminal organization
The Spanish police and Europol broke up a criminal organization based in Barcelona that was dedicated to the trafficking of marijuana between the State and Europe. In total, 54 people were arrested who acted as drug wholesalers for foreign organizations and who laundered the profits obtained mainly from real estate investments.
The operation took place on April 23 and involved the arrest of thirteen people in Barcelona, thirteen more in Girona, two in Tarragona, two in Malaga, two in Granada, nine in Finland, five in Sweden, five in Germany and four in France. In addition, eighteen searches were carried out in the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona and Granada, where 34,000 euros in cash, 3,000 euros in crypto-assets, more than 600 kilos of marijuana and thousands of plants were confiscated.
A violent and structured organization
According to the Spanish police, this criminal organization used violence to carry out its activities, which required the collaboration of specialized agents for the arrests. The group had connections with foreign criminal organizations to whom it supplied drugs to be sold in their countries.
The organization was structured in the form of a family clan, following the parameters of Europol’s ‘clan-based crime’. The leader was in charge of closing down drug sales operations to foreign organizations and gave instructions to the rest of the group. Another member, known as ‘the devil’, had been in prison for murder in 2007 and was in charge of the group’s violent actions, using firearms.
An evolving organization
Over the years, this criminal organization had changed the way it operated. They started with the sale of heroin and then devoted themselves to the cultivation and sale of marijuana, entering the international market. The profits obtained were laundered through real estate investments and cryptocurrencies. As a result of the operation, eight real estate properties valued at 1,555,000 euros were blocked.
