A detainee in connection with the plot that was dedicated to taking advantage of boat trips to bring fugitives from justice back to Algeria.
A criminal network used high-powered boats to illegally transfer migrants from Algeria to the coast of Almería, a journey of just over 200 kilometers, from where they temporarily passed to Alicante until they could be sent to their final destination, both in Spain and in France. Those same boats were used on their return to transport fugitives from justice who wanted to escape from Europe and to bring drugs and stolen objects into the North African country. An operation of the National Police dismantled this network after arresting 24 people on December 14, the majority in Alicante, but also in Almería and Jaén, accused of the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, against the rights of foreign citizens , against public health and reception,as has been made public this Monday.
The organization used pneumatic boats with high-powered engines that they bought in Europe and transferred to Algeria, where this type of boat is prohibited by law, Inspector Páez, group head of the Central Immigration Networks Unit, explains to EL PAÍS Illegal and Documentary Falsehoods (UCRIF), which has led the operation together with Europol. On the Algerian coast they loaded migrants and, on occasions, "packs of smuggled tobacco" heading to the coast of Cabo de Gata, "15 kilometers of rocky coastline full of caves impossible to control" that members of the criminal plot "They knew perfectly well, despite living in Alicante." Its way of operating was with mass shipments, says the inspector. “They used to send many boats at the same time, sometimes up to ten boats, so that if any were intercepted,the rest could reach Spain without problems ”.
Illegal substances seized from the gang.
National Police
Upon reaching Almería, they would disembark people and bundles and temporarily hide them in the caves in the area, where drugs, narcotic substances, anxiolytics or psychoactive drugs and a variety of stolen material were also stored, from jewelry to high-end mobiles or scooters. , with which they loaded the boats for their return to the Maghreb country.
“The network had a specific group of people dedicated to stealing all kinds of objects on the beaches and in the center of Alicante”, which were first kept “in establishments [run by] Algerians in the city, such as phone booths or butcher shops”, until his definitive transfer to Almería.
Occasionally, pilots of boats that had suffered some kind of mishap on their sea voyages also waited in those same caves. But other times, the passage was made up of "fugitives from justice who came from Spain, France or Italy" and wanted to return to their country "avoiding port or airport controls," says Páez. "These are criminals who had committed all kinds of crimes in Europe, from robbery to homicides, even", explains the group leader, "and who did not want to be arrested in Europe." Once with everything on board, the boats returned to the Algerian coast.
The migrants who had crossed the Alboran Sea, meanwhile, were sent to flats specifically prepared to house them in Alicante. They were precarious accommodation that the leaders of the plot "took as squatters." These houses were exploited "as long as possible, until legal problems arose with the owners and then they abandoned them and exchanged for others." They were all located in the north of Alicante, a group of marginal neighborhoods with abundant crime problems and whose inhabitants subsist on minimal economic resources.
There, migrants received money through the hawala system, consisting of economic transfers made at origin and destination through intermediaries and based on trust between parties. "The transactions were made by some person or hawaler from Oran, to whom relatives or acquaintances of the migrant gave 10,000 dinars that were transformed into 1,000 euros granted by another hawaler living in Spain," explains Páez, "from hand to hand, without proof or record of the movement of money ”. In other cases, the migrants did not pay at origin, but received the amounts necessary to pay their debt to the criminal network and meet their living expenses or phone cards until they could return the money. According to the investigation, the cost of the trip between Algeria and Almería was 5,000 euros,Getting to Alicante cost between 200 and 600 more. And, finally, the transfer to France was valued between 700 and 1,000 euros.
The investigation, carried out by more than a hundred agents during six or seven months, and derived from another operation that dismantled a similar plot that operated in Almería, Murcia and Alicante, established that this entire network united two perfectly coordinated organizations divided into four subgroups. The first was that of the leaders, who organized, coordinated and distributed the tasks to their subordinates. The second collected the migrants in Almería, transferred them to Alicante and, from there, to the chosen final destination. Another part of the plot was in charge of controlling the security floors and providing everything necessary, such as food, drugs or mobile phones, to customers. Finally, the UCRIF agents detected the group of money changers, the hawalers, "a fundamental part of the plot", according to Páez,since "attacking the financing systems of these networks is of great help in the fight against illegal immigration".
The National Police has managed to hold the 24 detainees responsible for trafficking, at least, of more than 250 victims in 54 migratory episodes that occurred in recent months. After his arrest, carried out on December 14, the agents carried out nine searches and four inspections in commercial establishments in Alicante. In total, more than 40,000 euros in cash, four vehicles, three and a half kilos of ecstasy of the substance called pink cocaine, a thousand pills of anxiolytics and psychotropic drugs, 56 grams of phencyclidine or angel dust and 710 packs of tobacco were intervened. smuggled. They also located numerous stolen items, such as 61 mobile terminals, three competition bicycles, electric scooters, various electronic devices, various identity documents of third parties,bank cards and numerous documentation related to the investigation, according to police sources.
