Gang of cocaine smugglers smashed on Spanish islands

Seven people have been arrested in Baleares and Canarias in a Civil Guard operation which has uncovered a drugs network which smuggled cocaine in by sea from Venezuela and hid the drugs off the coast for later collection.

There were three arrests on Tenerife and four on Mallorca. Five of the group are Spanish, who worked with a man from Venezuela and another from Russia.

The Civil Guard said in a press release on Monday that the organisation bought the boats they used for the trips in South America and sailed to the Spanish coast with their illegal cargo. Once there, the cocaine bales were unloaded and either hidden on the seabed or in cliffs where access by land was difficult.

The boats, some of them valued at more than 300,000 €, were then sunk.

Officers who had the group under surveillance on the Canary Islands recovered eight bales containing a total 9 kilos of cocaine.

It’s understood the gang laundered the proceeds from their drugs sales through real estate businesses on Mallorca.