In a joint operation by the Civil Guard and the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, a drug trafficking network has been dismantled with the seizure in Madrid of a shipment of 625 kilos of methamphetamine mixed in a shipment of coconut oil from Mexico.
The operation began on February 19 when members of the Guardia Civil’s Fiscal and Border Analysis and Investigation Unit, both from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, along with Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency in Madrid, identified a suspicious shipment from Mexico.
The declared merchandise consisted of 36 jars of coconut oil. After a physical inspection and the taking of samples, the Central Laboratory of Customs and Special Taxes of the Tax Agency confirmed that the contents of the containers tested positive for narcotics.
The merchandise was moved and stored in a storage unit in the town of Arganda del Rey (Madrid), which was not yet open to the public at the time of the deposit.
Since February 24, teams from the Madrid Regional Customs Surveillance Area and the UDAIFF of the Civil Guard in Madrid established rotating surveillance devices over the storage room where the replaced merchandise was kept, the address of the final recipient of the shipment and the address of the person in charge of the logistics management (payment of taxes, tariffs and storage).
In these surveillance operations, the investigators detected that one of the suspects went to the storage unit up to three times to check the condition of the merchandise, carrying out counter-surveillance measures.
Furthermore, a connection was established between two suspects after a two-hour meeting between them was witnessed at a bar. Database searches confirmed the link between these two individuals, who had already been reported as alleged perpetrators of fraud in 2015.
On March 1st, continuing their surveillance, two more of the detainees, one a Spanish national and the other a Mexican national, met and spoke in a secluded area of a bar. During this conversation, officers observed that the Mexican national held a position of authority over the other. After the meeting, investigators confirmed that the motorcycle the Mexican national used to leave belonged to the other suspect, further strengthening the connection between them.
Exploitation of the operation and arrests
After weeks of investigation and surveillance, the agencies involved agreed to launch the operation on March 5th. The operation lasted 48 hours, culminating in the arrest of five individuals allegedly linked to the importation and possession of the drugs. Following their appearance before the judicial authorities, four of those arrested were remanded in custody.
Among those arrested was the person the organizations call ‘the notary,’ since he is responsible for verifying that the drug shipment was carried out as agreed upon by the organization. This individual was arrested upon disembarking from a flight originating in Mexico.