The Balkans cartel, responsible for half of the cocaine that reaches Europe, falls

The Spanish Police, in collaboration with various countries and in coordination with Europol, completely dismantled the Balkan ‘super cartel’, responsible for 50 percent of the cocaine that reaches Europe, after having dismantled its main branches.

Those responsible for the fight against drug trafficking of the Spanish Civil Guard and countries such as Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Dubai, Germany, Belgium and Turkey reported on the operation this Thursday.

After the operation, the Balkan clan was completely inoperative, made up of several organizations that trafficked cocaine that was brought from Brazil through the West African route and stored in Sierra Leone, where the cartel had logistics centers, to take it to the Islands. Canary Islands (Spain) and from there distribute it throughout Europe.

In total, 40 people were arrested – 13 of them in Spain and already in prison -, of which three were “high value targets” and 8 tons of cocaine, weapons of war, 12.5 million euros in cash and US$ 3 million in cash were seized, in addition to the immobilization of assets worth 50 million euros in Serbia.

Precisely, yesterday the last intervention against this network was carried out in Spain, specifically in the Canary Islands (Atlantic) and Malaga (southern Spain), with two detainees in each case, presumed responsible for collecting the drugs.

The main leaders of these criminal groups were established in Dubai and Turkey, closely linked to each other and with the ability to deploy their collaborators in different parts of the world in order to facilitate this global cocaine trafficking.

A sailboat with 1,000 kilos of cocaine, the beginning of the operation

It all started for Spain in 2020, when the police intercepted 1,000 kilos of cocaine on a Croatian-flagged sailboat bound for the Canary Islands and detained its three occupants.

Investigators were able to verify that the sailboat had unloaded the merchandise from a cargo ship in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea.

The information obtained in this operation, especially that extracted from the encrypted communications from the devices seized from the detainees, was shared with Europol.

And by pulling the thread, we reached a criminal organization that directed the trafficking of tons of cocaine from Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. Precisely, this last country was the point of origin in a large part of the cases that were investigated and from which their maritime drug shipments left for logistics centers in West Africa – Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast – and the Canary Islands (Spain).

Later, in August 2023, the police intercepted a boat with 700 kilos of cocaine in waters near the Canary Islands. From that operation the agents extracted information of great value, because it was confirmed that there had been a previous transport of 500 kilos of cocaine from Brazil, by the same Italian-Croatian crew and the same boat.

All this information was of great help in the course of this macro-operation, which places its managers and intermediaries from the Western Balkans.

War weapons were seized in Serbia in the operation, although investigators found no evidence that they came from consignments sent to Ukraine.

A ‘broker’ with the capacity to move tons of cocaine

But none of these branches could move without having one of the key pieces of the puzzle: a ‘broker’, detained in Turkey, and whom the organizations hired because he had all the necessary means for all phases of cocaine trafficking.

With capacity for “move tons of drugs”, they turned to him to buy the drugs from suppliers in Brazil, to be able to deposit the cocaine in Africa and for its transfer to the Canary Islands.

So important in the business, that he was kidnapped due to clashes between organizations and precisely he wanted to be released because the main drug trafficking mafia in Brazil, called Primeiro Comanda da Capital, paid his ransom.

The investigators highlighted the great violence of these organizations, as recognized by the head of the Europol Drugs Unit, Robert Fay, who said that “there is a daily murder among them”.