Brian McDonald
Spanish police said Thursday they seized 1.8 tons of methamphetamine that Mexico Sinaloa Cartel I was trying sell in Europethe “largest narcotics seizure of all time” in the country.
Police arrested five people during the operation in the eastern province of Alicante, one of them a Mexican who ran the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.
“This is the largest methamphetamine seizure in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organized crime unit, told reporters.
“Among those detained is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.
He did not provide his name, but indicated that the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain and then distributing them in Europe.
According to Martínez, the group used houses in isolated areas of the Valencia region to store smuggled shipments of methamphetamine before using vehicles with false bottoms to send them to other European countries.
Police released video on social media showing police removing bags with apparent drugs that were hidden inside machines and in the false underside of vehicles.
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups, whose influence remains strong despite the imprisonment of its founder, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and his son.
Both were extradited and arrested in the United States. Last month, “El Chapo” received his request for phone calls and visits from his young daughters denied by a federal judge.
During the operation, the police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and money.
But police believe it was a one-time trafficking operation and that “Mexican organizations do not have permanent headquarters” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.
“These organizations send a trusted person who carries out the operation according to their interests” and, once finished, returns home, he explained.
The seized narcotics were to be sent to Central Europe.
Manu Fernández/AP
Although Spain is one of the main entry points for drugs into Europe, seizures of synthetic drugs are uncommon, as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.
In December, Spanish authorities confiscated 11 tons of cocaine hidden inside containers and arrested 20 people. Nine months before that, police in northwestern Spain refloated a homemade semi-submersible vessel – a the so-called “narco sub” they suspected it was used to transport cocaine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
