The Civil Guard has dismantled in Alicante a plot made up of citizens of Algerian origin that operated from the coast of Almería with a fleet of pateras-taxi to which they gave a double function, as reported by the armed institute this Saturday in a press release. First, the network sent shipments of methamphetamine pills to the North African country and, on the return trip, they transported people who had paid between 2,000 and 4,000 euros to cross the Mediterranean to enter Spain irregularly. The operation, which has not yet been closed, has so far resulted in seven arrests and the seizure of 68 kilos of methamphetamine pills, the sale of which on the street would have reached an approximate value of 3 million euros. After being brought to justice, the Investigative Court 3 of Orihuela (Alicante) has ordered the imprisonment of six of those arrested and has released the seventh.
The one baptized as Operation Emissary began in January, after the Civil Guard detected an Algerian citizen whose activities indicated that he was allegedly trafficking both drugs and people between Spain and North Africa. The investigations initially collected revealed that this person was supposedly the person most responsible for the network, since he was in charge of both financing the logistics necessary to carry out the double traffic and recruiting the people who were going to execute the trips.
The running aground of a boat, in March, on a beach near Pilar de la Horadada, in the extreme south of the province of Alicante, gave a boost to the investigation, according to sources close to them detailed to EL PAÍS. From that moment on, those responsible for the investigations detected the movement in both directions, between the coasts of Almería and Algeria, of vessels called in police jargon as rubber bandssemi-rigid inflatable boats equipped with outboard motors that are commonly used in drug trafficking.
The agents of the Information Group of the Alicante command, together with the Information Headquarters (UCE 3), determined that the plot used these boats, with engines of 150 or 200 horsepower (each valued between 30,000 and 40,000 euros). and a size capable of accommodating a dozen people to make their trips, lasting approximately five hours each way. Under the orders of the leader, a group of people worked who were in charge of providing fuel to the bosses and the logistics necessary to receive the caches and hide them, in addition to facilitating the arrival of the immigrants to the destinations they had chosen.
The plot allegedly also had a network of intermediaries in Algeria, who were responsible for recruiting immigrants who wanted to reach Europe and charging them the agreed price, which ranged between 2,000 and 4,000 euros. For the latter they used the call hawalaan old financial system used by migrants that allows international payments without the need to physically move money from one jurisdiction to another and that is also used by criminal organizations due to the difficulties in being detected.
The final blow to the criminal network occurred on October 12, after the breakdown of one of the pateras-taxi in waters near Roquetas de Mar (Almería). The boat was supposedly headed to Algeria with a shipment of 48 kilos of methamphetamines. When trying to return to the coast, the boat was intercepted by a maritime unit of the Civil Guard, whose agents detained the skipper. Four other people who helped him return to the coast were also arrested. After these arrests, the Civil Guard identified the rest of the alleged members of the group and proceeded to arrest them on November 21. They were all residents of Alicante, whose province is home to more than 15,000 Algerians, the largest colony settled in Spain.
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Six of the detainees have been imprisoned accused of the crimes of criminal organization, against the rights of foreign citizens, simulation of a crime, against public health, against property and reception. During the operation, five searches were carried out – four in homes and another in an industrial warehouse supposedly used to store stolen vehicles – in which another 20 kilos of pills, two semi-rigid boats, two vehicles, 8,780 euros in cash, a pistol were seized. detonator and several mobile phones, as detailed this Saturday by the Civil Guard in its press release.
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