(Updates NA5044 with further details on the police operation)
Madrid, December 12 (EFE). – The National Police, in collaboration with the North American DEA and the Colombian police, have intercepted a shipment of heroin in pills for the first time in Spain. Eight kilos of this drug, intended for sale to the young public in Madrid and Catalonia, were confiscated.
The operation reported by police on Friday, christened “Atis” (Turkish for “horse”), led to the arrest in November of five people – two Turkish citizens, two Dominicans and a Colombian, three of whom are in prison – members of a criminal organization that wanted to import heroin in this form through a new route from Colombia.
According to Alberto Morales, Chief Commissioner of the Central Drug Brigade of the Unit Against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime (UDYCO), it is a “very relevant” and “groundbreaking” seizure, since it is the first in Europe and the world to seize heroin in the form of pills that can be diluted and later taken by injection.
With this novel presentation system – each unit or dose has the shape and design of a skull and a similar size to the well-known sexual stimulation drugs – the organization wanted to market this drug to a younger audience, since each heroin pill would cost between eight and ten euros.
Police officers in charge of the fight against drugs have recalled that heroin use is residual in Spain and that our country is in fact in the queue for seizures of this drug, which last year saw a total of five tons seized in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, among others.
As Morales explained, the investigation was led by the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court and the Investigative Court No. 17 of Madrid and began with recurring meetings in a kebab restaurant in the capital with a Turkish citizen who had been at large for several months after serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking for the past 18 years.
This person, together with another compatriot, is the recipient and distributor of the drugs – their final destination was Catalonia and Madrid – which, through the involvement of the two imprisoned Dominicans, would have arrived hidden in luggage through Madrid airport, while the Colombian involved would have been the “liaison” of the parent organization in Colombia.
The UDYCO suspects that due to the amount of pills confiscated, this could be a first test delivery in which the two Turks negotiated the terms of the transaction in the restaurant with the other detainees.
In fact, investigators noticed that the Express neither used a cell phone nor ever went directly to his kebab appointments without first making one or more stops to ensure he was not being followed.
He also wore sunglasses or glasses and a hat to hide his physical appearance and avoid being recognized at his meetings. He also did not travel in his car, but rather on public transport or in rental vehicles with a driver.
After making sure that the meetings were becoming more frequent and after identifying the rest of those involved, the police intervened last November as they were preparing to deliver the eight kilograms of heroin in pill form in broad daylight in the parking lot of a shopping center in the south of Madrid.
During the three searches in the capital, five mobile devices, a vehicle and 100,000 USDT (stable Tether cryptocurrency) were confiscated. EFE
(Video)
About The Author
