Several aspects aroused the suspicions that a cargo of 335 tons of cardboard, which arrived at the port of Barcelona, Spain, from Guatemala, contained more than waste to recycle, because about two tons of cocaine were hidden in the form of pills between cardboard bales, according to a newspaper of the newspaper The country.
The Spanish authorities reported this Monday, June 2 about the confiscation of the largest cargo of cocaine in one of its ports: almost 1,200 kilos. The drug arrived at the port of Barcelona on March 12 in 14 containers charged with recycling cardboard from Guatemala.
The type of product that was downloaded at the dock was one of the aspects that aroused the suspicions of customs surveillance agents, since it is not common for Spain to receive waste from other countries. Rather, it serves as a transit for plastic waste that is sent to Asia or for electronic products that have Africa destination.
In addition, it was reported that the discharge operation of the containers for trucks that would take them to another place was extremely slow, so the agents paid greater attention to the movement of the merchandise, which would be transferred to an industrial warehouse without any infrastructure, another aspect that caught the attention.
Experts point out that another failure of drug traffickers in this case was the lack of patience, because in transactions such as companies that cover up the illicit they usually have a legal appearance; That is, they have a website, a telephone number, work with other real activities companies and make several legal imports before the drug arrives.
However, The country He points out that the company involved in the case made few real recycling operations and few shipments prior to the one contained in narcotics.
“An element that made us suspect was the large volume of operations; imports of 14 or 15 containers are exceptional, and more than this type of merchandise,” sources close to the case said, whose statements were published by The country.
Inspection
By noticing the slowness with which the cardboard was downloaded, agents of the Tarragona Operational Unit of the Customs Surveillance Service submitted to inspection the trucks that came out of the port. They disassembled cardboard bales, weighed 670 kilos, and although it was a thorough job – because layer had to be removed by cape – experts found a package containing cocaine in the form of pills.
“The cocaine was very hidden: only 18 pills in each bullet – Paca – of cardboard, distributed in three packages of six pills placed in different parts of the bullet,” said a researcher.
It was indicated that the agents scored the reference number of the load and went to the warehouse in search of the packages that coincided with that number. In total there were 500 packages with those characteristics and also with drugs, but another element gave them a clue: “When inspecting one of the positives we saw that it had a different metal flexes to others. We tested with another of those who had those flexes and it was also positive, so we ended up separating all those who fulfilled that condition.” Until that time, there were already 200 kilos of cocaine.
The researchers verified that the rest of cardboard bales with the same reference were destined for a winery in Camarma de Esteruelas, Madrid, a municipality with just 8,000 inhabitants, where the trace of the trucks followed.
Upon arriving at the winery, they proceeded to inspect the trucks and found that there was also drugs: almost a ton more pills.
“It is the greatest apprehension of cocaine in this community in the last 20 years,” Customs Surveillance reported in a statement. During the operation, the Spanish authorities arrested five members of the organization, but what most surprised was the “immense amount of merchandise” used to hide cocaine: 335 tons to hide two drugs, something like looking for a needle in a haystack.