Hit the Swedish drug dealer on the Costa del Sol

Works of art, luxury homes on the Costa del Sol, accounts in tax havens,

, a moving company used to transport drugs, weapons of war and a bloody trail of reckoning are some of the elements of a plot that has a Swedish drug gang from the Costa del Sol as protagonists. After two years of work, the organization was dismantled last February, when the latest arrests were made, thanks to a joint effort by the National Police, the Civil Guard and the Swedish police authorities that was announced this Thursday, after a few months. dedicated to document analysis. The result of the investigation includes a volume of assets and goods worth more than 55 million euros, and the arrest of 71 people. Among them is Chiab Lamouri, one of Sweden's most dangerous criminals,and also Lars Gunnar Broberg and Joakim Peter Broberg, respectively husband and stepson of the mayor of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz.

Lars Gunnar Broberg was arrested last February, when plainclothes policemen went to one of his companies based in Marbella. Sources of the investigation have confirmed that the agents read him the rights and that he is being investigated for money laundering. Meanwhile, her son, the fruit of a marriage prior to Angeles Muñoz's, was arrested in July in Brazil by local authorities after Spain issued an International Arrest Warrant after his escape to that country. He is related to money laundering and drug trafficking. The same sources claim not to have found any connection between the activity of both with the Marbella City Council or the mayor. Ángeles Muñoz, for her part, defended her partner's "honorableness" and "professional career" in February.

Some objects seized during the arrest of 71 members of a wide network of drug traffickers that operated between Spain and Sweden.

The group took care of all the steps.

And they did it creatively to try to get around police surveillance.

On the one hand, it introduced different illegal substances into Spain from Morocco, especially hashish.

The drugs traveled hidden in recreational boats that, once near the Malaga coast, anchored the bundles with a beacon to mark their location.

Days later, those in charge of the collection went to the indicated point to collect them.

In one of the police interventions 550 kilos of hashish that were floating in the sea were intervened.

The police operation, called

and in which bodies such as Udyco, Udev or the Civil Guard (Malaga command) have participated, it has directly attacked the heart of one of the greatest fears of these security forces: the settlement of bands of Swedish origin in Spanish territory. Especially in Barcelona and, especially, on the Costa del Sol. In fact, in recent years, the violence with which they operate in Sweden has been transferred to the Malaga coast, where the war over drug trafficking causes frequent settling of accounts that leave about 50 deaths a year. It was the Swedish police who gave the warning, at the end of 2018, of what was happening and, since then, the investigation has revealed the existence of a large, highly branched organization that trafficked with different narcotic substances from Malaga to the Scandinavian country .

One of the formulas chosen to transport drugs to Sweden was using a legally constituted moving company, with offices in San Pedro Alcántara (in the municipality of Marbella) and Torrevieja (Alicante). The illegal cargo was hidden among legal cargo; furniture, usually. Between boards and shelves, up to 55,000 units of an opiate drug used as a substitute for heroin were seized in one of the shipments to Stockholm. In another, 85 kilos of marijuana that had been transferred by truck from an industrial estate in Marbella to Gothenburg were intervened. In the Malaga industrial warehouse from which the shipment began, several people were arrested when they were preparing the shipment of another 265 kilos of hashish.Remittances to the Scandinavian country were also made through parcel companies or stacked trucks.

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Among the numerous arrests of this operation, the investigators managed to arrest in Madrid one of the leaders of the drug trafficking organization, Chiab Lamouri. This is a 32-year-old man who had been classified by Europol as a "high value target" due to his high crime rate on European territory. His whereabouts unknown until his arrest, the Swedish authorities considered him one of the most dangerous criminals in the country. He is considered the author of crimes such as conspiracy for murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Last July he was sentenced to 17 years in prison in his country. Among those arrested there are also people “directly related” to different Swedish criminal groups that dispute the sale of drugs in the big cities of Sweden.The gang had prepared for battle with numerous firearms, including Kalashnikov AK-47 submachine guns or an M52 grenade.

Far from going unnoticed, the leaders of the drug trafficking network had no qualms about showing their high standard of living. One of them had around thirty works of art ("very well valued, and some stolen", according to sources of the investigation), among them several numbered replicas of works by Salvador Dalí. The large amounts of money they obtained with their illicit business allowed them to invest in numerous luxury properties in Marbella and other municipalities on the Costa del Sol, and with this they had a “very negative influence on the real estate market in the area”, according to the statement sent by the police forces. Part of the money was also invested in gold or entered into current accounts for, through corporate networks with connections in tax havens, to launder money,something for which they had specialized legal advice. The investigation has made it possible to locate and block up to 64 luxurious properties and land on the Malaga coast after investigating several searches in real estate agencies, two of them based in Marbella and belonging to Swedish citizens.

In total, during the four phases of the operation, 71 people were arrested and assets and property worth more than 55 million euros were recovered. 1.7 tons of hashish, 500 kilos of marijuana, 55,000 units of opiates and 23 kilos of amphetamines have been intervened, as well as about twenty firearms. They have also located half a million euros in cash, 1.8 million euros in bank accounts and

wallets

with an estimated value of 15,000 euros. In addition, three vessels, 15 luxury watches, the aforementioned thirty works of art, have been intercepted. 64 properties have also been blocked, 30 vehicles seized and another 23 seized.