The joint operation against drug trafficking deployed this Tuesday by agents of the National Police, Civil Guard and Customs Surveillance Service in Vilagarcía de Arousa has so far resulted in six people arrested, among whom is Juan Manuel Vidal Padín, alias Donkey. Vidal, under police scrutiny for almost 20 years, is considered the alleged person responsible for the cocaine transport carried out by the narco-submarine. Poseidonarrested a year ago in the Arousa estuary, presumably after unloading the drugs and when he was sailing without control and adrift.
After a day of searches at the Náutica Vidal company, the boat and supply sales business owned by Vidal, the agents located four gliders, similar to those used in drug unloadings. All of them were inside a warehouse located in the Vilaxoán area, according to investigation sources. One of these boats caught the attention of researchers due to its larger size, reaching 16 meters in length, as well as the power of its four engines, 420 HP each. The seized vessel, which was supposedly prepared to go sailing, could reach speeds of 50 knots and reach the high seas in just four hours of sailing.
The detainees have been interrogated at police stations by agents from the Central Narcotics Unit and the Civil Guard, assisted by lawyers, some of them ex officio, such as that of Juan Vidal. It is expected that this Thursday all of them will go to court to testify before the head of the investigative court number 1 of Vilagarcía, who has directed the investigations that have been carried out in the last year regarding the suspicious movements of El Burro and that triggered the police operation.
The investigations that have led to the arrest of Vidal after two decades in the fight against drug trafficking began with the discovery in February 2023 of two gliders in Ribeira (A Coruña), mysteriously abandoned, since they were equipped with powerful engines and fuel. Everything seemed to indicate that they were going to embark on a long journey, but something finally prevented them, perhaps bad weather or coordination problems in approaching the mother ship.
The police have linked this discovery with that of the drug submarine Poseidon, two weeks later. The bathyscaphe was found in Vilagarcía by a sailor. It was semi-sunken and once it was moved to land, it was found to be empty. Despite this, investigators determined that it had the capacity to transport about 5,000 kilos of cocaine. The police hypothesis is that for some unknown reason, the drugs he was carrying could not be collected on the high seas and the semi-submersible reached the coast, one kilometer from where Vidal has his properties. Investigators believe that the cocaine that the ship was carrying, which is estimated at more than three tons, was hidden in ships owned by El Burro.
As reported by the Government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, the investigations are still open. One of the seized vessels, he noted, was in the construction phase and one of the six arrested was detained on the Canary island of Fuerteventura. The Government delegate in Galicia has congratulated the State security forces and bodies for their “long” and “highly satisfactory” work in the dismantling of this criminal organization that has led to the fall of one of the alleged Galician drug lords. The investigation includes alleged money laundering in several countries.
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This important anti-drug operation comes after last week the police forces acted against a network in charge of the construction and transportation of semi-rigid gliders. Already then, the agents, led by a court in Vigo, linked the dozen people involved – including those arrested and investigated – with the two boats that were found in Ribeira a year ago. They carried out searches in the towns of Noia, Vilanova de Arousa, A Estrada, Bertamiráns and Portonovo and intervened in molds to build narcolanchas and a truck for transportation.
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