The National Police has dismantled in Linares (56,525 inhabitants, Jaén) an important criminal gang dedicated to drug trafficking, the Los Alicantinos clan.
The agents have arrested eight of its members, including its leader, the drug trafficker known as El Pechuga, who had been wanted and captured since March 2021 after fleeing another police operation.
El Pechuga, who has numerous antecedents related to crimes against public health, was located hidden under the couch of a bed.
The so-called Operation Lollipop has resulted in nearly a thousand marijuana plants seized, 800 grams of buds ready for sale, 600 grams of hashish and five of heroin.
In addition, five firearms and 3,800 euros in cash have been seized.
The eight arrested have entered preventive detention by order of the head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 1 of Linares, who has directed the entire investigation.
The police operation has consisted of the search of seven homes in the Linares neighborhood of El Cerro and its surroundings and in the area of the Linares-Baeza Station, where the Los Alicantinos clan had its storage and distribution points.
In another house, the police have found an underground room, which was perfectly equipped for the intensive cultivation of marijuana, as well as for the subsequent preparation of this drug.
"This makes us suspect that the group had a significant volume of sales and, therefore, very high economic profits", commented the head of the Provincial Police Station of Jaén, Adriano Rubio.
The investigation began last October, when the agents learned that members of Los Alicantinos could be dedicating themselves to the sale of narcotics again.
After months of investigations, the police officers of the Narcotics Group detected seven addresses, linked to the organization, either for the cultivation of marijuana plantations and their subsequent preparation, or to serve as a warehouse for narcotic substances and even for sale to other distribution points. throughout the province.
“The area in which the houses are located was perfectly controlled.
It only has one input and one output.
It is like an open-air bunker, which is very difficult to access without the members of this organization knowing about it”, added the head of the Police Station.
The sub-delegate of the Government in Jaén, Catalina Madueño, highlighted this Wednesday the efficient work of the National Police "to turn the city of Linares into a hostile territory for the criminal groups that are based in this territory, dedicated to drug trafficking, fundamentally , cocaine and hashish”.
Madueño added that the Narcotics Group of the Linares Police Station is "an important bastion" in the fight against organized crime and the trafficking of illicit substances in the province.
Thus, she has highlighted that, from 2019 to the present, 101 anti-drug operations have been completed, in which 292 people have been arrested, most of them members of family clans settled in the city.
During this time, almost 16 kilos of cocaine, 1,700 grams of heroin, more than 400 kilos of hashish, more than 8,000 "green" marijuana plants and 102 kilos of buds ready for sale have been seized.
On the other hand, 22 firearms, hundreds of cartridges and ammunition for firearms, more than five tons of cut tobacco, a semi-rigid boat, 12 high-end vehicles, 206 fighting cocks that were recovered, and nearly half a million euros in cash.
