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Following months of investigation, four dockers and another worker at the port of Malaga as well as two other people were arrested on 30 October as part of an operation in which more than 400 kilos of cocaine were seized. They allegedly formed part of a criminal gang which focused on 'rescuing' large quantities of the drug from containers arriving at the port from South America.
Members of the National Police, Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard have been working closely since last year after detecting that the activity was taking place using a technique known in police jargon as 'blind hook' or 'lost hook', in which the aim is to make it appear that the containers from which the drugs have been recovered have not been tampered with to avoid police and customs control.
Operation 'Perdidos/Oliva/Sol' began, during which investigators learned that the drug trafficking networks were using dockers in the port to manipulate the containers and remove the drugs inside the port of Malaga, taking advantage of the legal commercial traffic and without the importing companies being aware of it.
In September 2023 an operation was mounted once members of the gang were identified while preparing to remove cocaine from a container at the dock. The cargo was closely monitored to arrest the suspects in the act. The suspects, however, after an unsuccessful attempt, abandoned their plans and the police units seized the 430 kilos of cocaine, valued at more than 20 million euros.
In the following months the investigations continued until the members of the network were identified. Controls and surveillance in the port of Malaga increased leading to a change in the 'modus operandi' of the gang members, who tried on two occasions to retrieve cocaine caches hidden in torpedoes attached to container ships that were unloaded at the port facilities.
In both cases, their intentions were thwarted thanks to the intense police work carried out at the port, in which naval and aerial resources of the Customs Surveillance and underwater resources of the Guardia Civil were deployed in addition to land resources.
The agents also carried out a search of three properties where they found diving equipment and tools used to retrieve narcotics attached to ships. This action has dealt a significant blow to organisations operating in Spain in the transport of cocaine, taking advantage of international merchandise trade operations and which introduce large quantities of narcotic substances at origin and extract them at destination, taking advantage of the existing port structure.
The operation also highlights the level of specialisation of the investigative units operating in the area, units that work jointly and are made up of officers from the National Police (UDYCO Costa del Sol - Narcotics Section), Customs Surveillance (UCMA) and the Civil Guard, who continue to work together in a coordinated manner to carry out this type of operation, which is highly complex and important.
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