This is how the ‘Tower of Babel’ fell, which transported marijuana from the Region of Murcia to the United Kingdom and Europe | La Verdad

A Swede, an Irishman, two Britons, a man from Granada and two from Murcia. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it isn’t. The intelligence service of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard in Madrid was investigating this group because, according to their information, this kind of ‘tower of Babel’ was dedicated to international cannabis trafficking, which had its origin in countries in North Africa, where they obtained part of the drug.

They then took it to Spain, from where they transported it by road to countries in Europe and the United Kingdom, at the request of the clients. This information was fed during 2017 with data from informants and clues that were the results of the surveillance that the agents had carried out on the alleged traffickers.

The report was forwarded to the Organised Crime and Anti-Drug Team (Edoa) in Murcia, which placed an industrial warehouse in the San Ginés Industrial Estate in Alcantarilla under its radar. The organisation allegedly used a ‘front company’ for fish distribution to cover up its illegal activities, managing to move significant quantities of cannabis and hashish via different routes from the south and east of the country.

According to the latest ‘tip’ they received, the business network they were investigating was going to carry out an imminent transport of marijuana.

The drugs were stored in the industrial warehouse in Alcantarilla that had been rented by the Murcian LOV, aged 45, and the Swede DR, aged 48, under the excuse of being dedicated to the import of fruit, although, in reality and according to the proceedings of the case, the facility was used as a logistics centre for the storage and distribution of drugs.

Stop, Civil Guard!

In October 2017, the Civil Guard deployed a surveillance operation around the warehouse. At around 11 a.m., the agents observed the entry of several vehicles, including a van and a truck. They loaded two pallets of boxes and the truck loaded with drugs left the warehouse.

He travelled about 50 kilometres and was intercepted by officers from the Guardia Civil’s Traffic Department at kilometre 633 of the A-7, in Lorca. Inside the vehicle, the officers found twenty boxes with 150 vacuum-packed, pressed plastic bags filled with marijuana buds weighing 190 kilos and worth more than 200,000 euros. The 59-year-old truck driver from Granada, VRM, was arrested.

During the arrest, his mobile phone kept ringing. He was called by a mobile number that appeared with the name ‘Follaor’. The agents never found this person with the alias of a forge worker, but the operation led to the arrest of the rest of those involved, of British, Irish and Spanish nationality, who performed different functions within the network.

Branches outside the country

One of them was the 55-year-old Spaniard PJR, who drove an Audi A4 and acted as a shuttle vehicle, securing the route and controlling any possible police presence. But, as Edoa suspected, the dismantled network was not limited to Spain. During the investigation, it was discovered that the Irish PD, another of the accused, aged 75, had contacts in the United Kingdom to coordinate the transfer of large quantities of narcotics. Another of these links was SM, resident in the United Kingdom, with whom PD met on several occasions to close agreements on the purchase and sale of drugs in Alicante.

The information gathered during the operation led to ramifications, and the Civil Guard arrested another Briton, JW, aged 75, who had been in contact with PD in the Orihuela Costa area to transport hashish from Granada.

JW was intercepted, along with the Spaniard AFC, at a police checkpoint on the A-7 motorway near Totana, where more than 3 kilos of hashish were found hidden in the hidden compartments of his vehicle. The drugs were destined for the United Kingdom.

Searches and more seizures

With the seven members of the network arrested, the Civil Guard searched the homes of the accused. In the house of LOV from Murcia – the person who rented the warehouse to store the 200 kilos of marijuana – the agents found a small plantation with 63 marijuana plants and material used for indoor cultivation.

At the home of PJR –the person in charge of the surveillance–, a money-counting machine was seized, along with 9,500 euros in cash, cash that investigators presume comes from drug sales. In another search carried out at the home of the English PD in Orihuela Costa, three notebooks were found with notes on quantities of drugs and contacts related to drug trafficking activity.

A sophisticated organization

The evidence gathered by the Civil Guard revealed the level of sophistication and organisation of the dismantled network. In addition to the vehicles used for transport, the network had its own surveillance systems and developed complex transport routes to avoid police controls.

The defendants used a range of logistical tools, from forklifts to shuttle vehicles, to ensure that the illicit goods reached their destination.