The Spanish police, in collaboration with the European police agency Europol, have dismantled a drug ring.
Twenty people were arrested, including two in Belgium. The network is suspected of smuggling cocaine through the port of Valencia in Spain, according to a statement by the Spanish police on Saturday.
Some suspects are linked to the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club in Belgium. Seventeen arrests were made in Spain, one in France. Additionally, eleven house searches were conducted, nine in Spain and two in Belgium.
More than a tonne of cocaine, two firearms, virtual wallets, illegal weapons, and eight luxury cars were seized.
The gang accessed the port through an intermediary and retrieved the drugs using “spidermen” who climbed the containers. The cocaine was then transported in lorries to warehouses, from where it was distributed across Europe.
According to the Spanish national police, the leader of the Belgian faction of the organisation was “one of the most significant criminals in the country”. He had been sought for four years but had been hiding in luxury homes along the Spanish coast.
