MORE than 2,5 tonnes of cocaine have been seized as multiple raids across Costa del Sol brought down the Spanish cell of one of Europe’s largest drug cartels, authorities said.
Police described the operation as a “historic blow against drug trafficking” after busts in Malaga, Sevilla, and Cadiz resulted in 30 arrests – crippling the notorious Balkan Cartel’s foothold in Spain.
Investigators said the gang offloaded shipments at its base of operations near Campo de Gibraltar, in Algeciras, before using speedboats to move the drugs inland via river routes.
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The crackdown comes amid a Europe-wide offensive against the cartel, with Europol-backed raids over the past two days also targeting the group’s operations in Germany, Austria, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia.
Authorities said the Balkan Cartel has grown into one of Europe’s biggest cocaine traffickers after taking near-total control of drug shipments bound for Europe from South America, particularly from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
The Balkan Cartel is not a single gang but a loose network of criminal groups – many with roots in the Western Balkans – that work together to move huge quantities of cocaine into Europe.
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Over the past decade, these groups have cut out middlemen by forging direct links with producers in South America, allowing them to dominate wholesale distribution across the continent.
Police say the cartel uses sophisticated smuggling methods, including hiding drugs in commercial cargo such as fruit shipments, which are then shipped to major European ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Algeciras.
From there, the drugs are distributed across Spain and into the rest of Europe.
The group is also believed to be heavily involved in money laundering, investing drug profits in property, shell companies and luxury goods across several EU countries.
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Investigators say encrypted phones and coded messaging systems are routinely used to coordinate shipments and avoid detection.
Spanish police have previously linked Balkan Cartel cells to industrial-scale marijuana farms in southern and eastern Spain, which are thought to help bankroll their wider cocaine operations.
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