Eighteen people have been arrested and nine others investigated in a swoop against an international drug trafficking gang operating in Spain and Germany. During the investigation, 16 raids were carried out in Malaga and Granada in Spain and in Leipzig and Bremen, in Germany. Authorities confiscated one ton of marijuana, 212,000 euros in cash, a firearm, ammunition and eight vehicles.
The investigation began last June when the Spain’s armed institute detected several German citizens acquiring large amounts of marijuana in Malaga and Granada. After the first exchange of information between the Spanish and German police, 240 kilos of vacuum-packed marijuana were seized in Bremen, which was hidden in the cargo of a truck that came from Malaga, resulting in the arrest of one person. Shortly after, in Malaga, officers found another 120 kilos of processed marijuana and 180 of hashish in a truck, during which a Ukrainian gang member was arrested.
Following these interceptions, the organisation began transporting the drugs in small quantities through the post. The investigators detected up to six shipments by this method, for which led to a further three arrests in Germany.
According to the armed institute, the organisation was divided into several cells spread between Malaga and Granada that used freight transport by road for distribution. The head of the organisation lived in Bremen, where most of the members of the criminal group resided.
During an operation in Granada to arrest one of the members of the gang, two Civil Guard agents were seriously wounded when they were rammed by a vehicle in which the individual was traveling as he tried to avoid arrest. Both officers were transferred to the hospital in Granada in a serious condition.
Those arrested, who are of Armenian, Turkish, Albanian, Serbian, Syrian, Croatian, Spanish and German nationality, are charged with crimes against health, belonging to a criminal organisation, illegal possession of weapons, attacking police, attempted homicide and money laundering, among other crimes.
