Spain was the center of operations for the Farruku clan, an international organization led by a group of Albanians who tried to introduce 10 tons of hashish and almost 10 tons of cocaine into various European countries.
Operation Proper culminated this Wednesday with the dismantling of the plot, and the arrest of 17 people in Cádiz, Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona and Toledo and the summons of another 20 as investigated.
The investigation has revealed that the organization used a practice of exchanging hashish for cocaine, attributing the same value to both goods, which the Civil Guard describes as unusual, and operating a "perfect business", according to the armed institute. .
Among the detainees is not the leader of the gang, Kreshnik Budlla, alias
Niko
, who used multiple identities to evade the European police and that in Spain wore a civil guard uniform to evade his identification.
A few years ago it was common for large organizations, with establishments or networks on both sides of the Atlantic, to exchange hashish for cocaine at a rate of two kilos of hashish for one of cocaine, but now that exchange is one for one.
The process takes advantage of the low cost of each drug at its origin (South America in the case of cocaine and Africa in the case of hashish) and the high cost they reach in their respective destinations (cocaine in Europe and hashish in South America ).
Thus, the dismantled organization had 10,000 kilos of hashish, seized in Portugal, which instead of being intended for distribution, were intended precisely to be exchanged with cocaine from South America.
The criminal activities of the Farruku clan, which ranged from cocaine trafficking to home robberies and score-settling murders, have been known in Spain since 2008. The police investigation that has led to this week's arrests began in September 2021, when the Civil Guard learned that a group of people planned to introduce a large amount of cocaine hidden in a container into the port of Algeciras.
Four months later, the suspicions were confirmed: the agents found 1,741 cocaine pills in a shipment from Guayaquil (Ecuador), hidden among loads of frozen hake.
The investigations led to the demonstration that those responsible for the shipment were members of the group that had already been investigating the armed institute a few months before, the Civil Guard said in a statement.
The progress of the investigation made it possible to identify and locate numerous members of the plot and what role they exercised at all levels of the organization, which according to the Civil Guard had a great operational capacity to introduce significant amounts of cocaine into European ports in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands.
In the first case, they had the support of several Spanish citizens, businessmen or lawyers, who gave them cover and collaborated by renting vehicles and ships to hide the loads.
In addition, they created companies to import the legal merchandise in whose containers the drugs also traveled.
Among the detainees is a lawyer from Malaga, Juan Fernández, whose law firm in the city was registered by the armed institute.
For the most part, the members of the gang are Albanian citizens, many of whom are related to each other, who had been living in Madrid and the Costa del Sol for years and had established a dense network of contacts with other criminal organizations, such as the Calabrian mafia.
They had numerous criminal records, including murder, and were being sought in several European countries.
A narco dressed as a Civil Guard
The investigations identified Kreshnik Budlla, alias
Niko
, as the leader of the gang, who is still on the run from justice.
Niko was arrested for the first time in 2019 in Madrid after Italy issued an arrest warrant against him.
By then, the Spanish police had already investigated him for his possible relationship with the group that in 2007 assaulted the house of businessman José Luis Moreno and for the shooting death, in 2008 in El Molar (Madrid), of Mendzici Nurarin, an alleged member of your organization.
However, he was never ultimately charged for any of these events.
The investigators have verified that the leader of the plot has used more than ten false identities to circumvent the action of the investigators.
Niko didn't wear just any costumes.
In the search of his home in Madrid, a police card and badge that he used to pose as a police inspector in Albania, and with investigative powers within the European Union, has been intervened.
Within Spain, he dressed in Civil Guard uniforms to travel by vehicle in order to evade his identification and avoid being arrested.
The macro-police operation has been directed by the Organized Crime and Anti-drug Team of the Algeciras Command, with the support of the Citizen Security Unit and the Services Core.
More than 250 agents from various units of the Civil Guard have participated in the device, coordinated with Europol for actions in other European countries.
The investigation continues to analyze the finances, assets and companies created by the leaders of the plot, with the suspicion that they used them to commit money laundering crimes.
