As part of Operation ZUREK, the Guardia Civil has dismantled a Polish criminal organisation based in the province of Málaga but with connections in Murcia, Cádiz and Granada, arresting eleven people.
The investigation began when the Polish police informed officers that a powerful criminal organisation from their country was based in Andalusia, engaged in transporting drugs to northern Europe. The members of the organisation were reportedly dangerous individuals with numerous police records in Poland. One of them, in addition to a record for drug trafficking, was a member of a radicalised hooligan gang in his country, and another had been convicted of crimes against public health, kidnapping and torture.
Following this information, officers began enquiries to locate the members of the organisation. After a painstaking investigation, it was established that they could be living in a house in Manilva (Málaga).
It subsequently became clear that the members of the organisation maintained strict security discipline: using security vehicles on journeys, taking long detours to reach their destination, posting people as “lookouts” during drug-loading operations, and so on.
Officers also observed a person meeting the targets who was identified as the leader of the group. He is a 36-year-old Polish national, M.Z.L., subject to a European Arrest Warrant for extradition for drug trafficking in his country, who was believed to be in the British Isles.
The Guardia Civil officers suspected that the organisation was about to carry out a shipment of narcotics and set up a surveillance operation that took them from Málaga to Granada, from Granada to Cádiz and finally to Murcia.
Suspecting that they could be transporting a large quantity of marijuana, officers stopped the lorry in Alicante. In the false bottom of air conditioning units, which was the cargo being transported, they found 162 kilos of marijuana, and the two people travelling in the lorry were arrested.
Once the members of the organisation, their homes and their roles were known, 6 raids and searches were carried out in the following locations: Songonera la Seca in Murcia, Estepona and Manilva in Málaga, Pulianas and Pinos Puentes in Granada, and Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Cádiz.
The searches led to the seizure of a loaded handgun with magazine, 3 vehicles, €100,000 in cash, two 300 hp outboard motors, money-counting and vacuum-packing machines, and 378 kilograms of marijuana buds.
In total, eleven people have been arrested, five Poles and six Spaniards. In addition, 564 kilograms of marijuana have been seized, dismantling an important criminal organisation that was transporting approximately one tonne of marijuana a month to northern Europe.
Guardia Civil officers from OCON-SUR UCO and from the Alicante, Murcia, Cádiz, Málaga and Granada Command Areas took part in Operation ZUREK, together with officers from the Poland Police Central Beuro of Investigation Field Branch Olsztyn.
Leer esta noticia en español →
