A complaint from a shipping company allowed the Guardia Civil to link multiple plots together
A general image of a Guardia Civil police car(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A huge haul of cannabis resin was packaged inside industrial machinery bound for Liverpool. The discovery of 340 kilos of hashish inside an industrial fan shipped to a company in Liverpool marks a significant development in a Spanish investigation into an organised crime group (OCG) with significant links to Ireland.
The probe led by the Guardia Civil uncovered the drug trafficking network based around the Alicante area of southern Spain’s Costa del Sol. The police investigation was launched after the Guardia Civil received a complaint on June 2 from a transport company in the town of Lorquà in the Murcia region of Spain.
The complaint reported that a truck driver for the company was arrested in France on May 26 when the package of hashish was found. The specialist organised crime and anti-drug team of the Guardia Civil began an investigation under the supervision of a court.
Local newspaper La Opinion de Murcia reported that the taskforce, working in collaboration with Spanish customs, obtained judicial authorisation to tap a phone and install tracking devices on two vehicles belonging to the group under investigation.
The probe revealed the group were using transport companies in Alicante and Murcia to transport drug stashes in industrial machinery shipments. The police found the same crime group who shipped the hashish bound for Liverpool were planning to send a similar shipment to Dublin.
The crime group planned to ship the haul inside an industrial drill bit. But the Guardia Civil examined the drill and found 84.2 kilos of cocaine hidden inside.
The drugs were seized and the drill was shipped as planned to Ireland on June 13, where Irish police had been alerted in a bid to identify the recipients.
The Guardia Civil identified four suspects including the truck driver and arrested them on June 20 after the shipment arrived in Ireland. The suspects, who have not been named, were freed on bail pending the ongoing probe.
The Guardia Civil rarely comment on ongoing proceedings until their investigations have concluded. However, local reports said the network had another industrial drill suspected of being prepared for a new shipment. However, it was empty when police arrested the suspects.
The seizure is the latest incident under the spotlight in the Costa del Sol region of Spain. The area on Spain’s most southern coastline has made headlines in recent months due to a series of shootings with links to organised crime.
This includes the double killing of two Scottish gangsters, Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jnr, who were executed at a bar in Fuengirola on May 31. Michael Riley, 44 and from the Merseyside area, was arrested and is currently in custody awaiting the next stage of extradition proceedings.
The pub killings followed the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old Merseyside man in nearby Calahonda. He was shot at around 8pm on Easter Monday in a professional hit as he headed back to his car after finishing a football match. The ECHO previously named him as Steven Gray.
Southern Spain’s Costa del Sol is colloquially referred to as the “Costa del Crime” due to the high number of organised crime groups who use its shores as a centre of operations. The coastal area, which was historically popular due to lax extradition laws, now sees British and Irish gangs battling with cartels from South America and Europe to gain a foothold.
The recent spike in incidents has led local politicians to ask for more help tackling organised crime and the firearms threat.