National Police agents have completed a long police investigation with the arrest of a total of 22 people who were allegedly part of a criminal group dedicated to drug trafficking and robberies of other drug traffickers.
The police investigation began after a fire started in a garage of a chalet that affected several vehicles. Agents learned that the fire was part of a settling of scores between rival drug gangs.
The agents, belonging to the Benidorm Judicial Police Brigade, began an investigation divided into several operational phases that has lasted for several months and has culminated in the identification and arrest of 22 people who belonged to a criminal network dedicated to drug trafficking. drugs in Benidorm and other towns in the province of Alicante.
The detainees are related to robberies from other criminal groups in addition to the crimes of illegal possession of weapons and reception, according to the Police in a statement.
During the investigation, the agents were able to establish the functions performed by each of the members of the criminal group. Thus, they discovered that its members constituted a “perfectly structured” group: some of the detainees ran and worked in legal businesses and companies in order to mask their illegal activity.
In addition, the agents learned of the commission by members of this criminal group of a robbery in a home belonging to other drug traffickers –what in police jargon is known as “vuelco”–, in which the suspects believed that there was drug stored.
However, those arrested did not manage to locate the drugs and instead they took several valuables and other effects from the house, among which was a semi-automatic pistol.
The agents also discovered that some detainees planned to use third parties to introduce narcotics, hidden inside their bodies, in different Penitentiary Centers, whose recipients were relatives of the detainees who were serving sentences.
The drugs that they stole from other drug trafficking groups were sold to third-party criminal organizations that were in charge of removing them from Spain with a final destination in other countries such as the United Kingdom, France or the Netherlands.
The agents have made the arrests throughout the different phases of the police operation, and have carried out a total of eight house searches in the towns of Benidorm, Altea, Vila Joiosa and Alfàs del Pi, in which they have seized two kilograms of cocaine, four kilograms of hashish and four kilograms of cutting substance.
They have also dismantled a marijuana plantation, and seized a 9mm semi-automatic pistol with ammunition, six vehicles and 4,170 euros in cash.
The 22 detainees, 19 men and three women, between 21 and 48 years of age and of Spanish, Moroccan, Algerian and British nationalities, were placed at the disposal of the Benidorm Investigating Court.
