The most important facts in brief
- “The whole of Europe is currently flooded with cocaine, and Spain plays an important role as a gateway to the continent,” warns an expert
- In addition to Spain, Portugal and France serve as gateways. Less is being confiscated in Rotterdam and Hamburg.
- The mafia makes billions from smuggling.
- The criminals are becoming increasingly inventive – and aggressive.
Spanish officials had never seen anything like it: during a search of a police chief’s house in the Madrid suburb of Alcalá de Henares, they found more than 20 million euros hidden behind the walls – presumably bribe money from drug deals.
The discovery of 13 tons of cocaine in a shipment of bananas from Ecuador in the port of Algeciras shortly before was similarly extraordinary. Never before had so much cocaine been confiscated at once in Spain. The work of the drug squad is becoming increasingly difficult and Hollywood-like in the most popular vacation destination.
“The whole of Europe is currently being flooded with cocaine, and Spain plays an important role as a gateway to the continent,” warned Joan Ramón Villalbí, the government commissioner for the National Drug Plan, in parliament in Madrid recently.
Twice as much cocaine seized as in the previous year
Just a few days after Villalbí’s statement, the Spanish police reported two further spectacular raids in March with many arrests, in Madrid and also in the luxury seaside resort of Marbella, the “Spanish Saint Tropez”.
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https://www.bluewin.ch/en/news/international/drug-mafia-floods-europe-with-cocaine-2612302.html
