The operation, carried out by Spain's and Germany's Customs Surveillance Service, has resulted in the seizure of eight tons of cocaine hidden within a shipping container. The cargo, which originated in Sierra Leone, passed through the ports of Jade-Weser (Germany) and Barcelona before being transported by road to a rented warehouse in Pampanico, within the municipality of El Ejido.
The alleged mastermind behind the operation has been identified as a businessman from Malaga in his sixties, residing in Aguadulce and experiencing reduced mobility due to a hip prosthesis. Along with a collaborator, also in his sixties, he was arrested without offering any resistance and without any weapons found. Both are currently in provisional detention.
The drugs were concealed within 400 sacks of raw cocoa beans, weighing over 18,000 kilograms. Inside each sack, 20 blocks of pressed cocaine were hidden. The merchandise was detected by X-ray scanners in Germany, enabling a coordinated tracking operation until its supervised delivery in El Ejido under the oversight of the Court number 2 of Estepona.
Authorities had been tracking the businessman, who was allegedly linked to previous cocaine shipments. He was located in a meeting at a hotel in Aguadulce, where arrangements were being made to pay for the transport. Investigations are ongoing to identify the final recipients of the merchandise.
This seizure surpasses the previous historical record in the province of Almería, which was 4,000 kilograms confiscated in 2007.
