Police in six nations have taken down a “super cartel” of medicine traffickers who managed round one third of Europe’s cocaine commerce, the European Union crime company has mentioned.
Europol mentioned 49 suspects had been arrested throughout the investigation, with a collection of raids going down throughout Europe and the United Arab Emirates between 8 and 19 November.
The arrests had been a end result of parallel investigations in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UAE, it added.
It mentioned forces concerned in “Operation Desert Light” focused each the “command-and-control centre and the logistical drugs trafficking infrastructure in Europe”.
Over 30 tonnes of medicine had been seized by officers.
“The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects’ control and command was massive and over 30 tonnes of drugs were seized by law enforcement over the course of the investigations,” Europol mentioned.
It mentioned the suspects used encrypted communications to organise the shipments.
Some 14 suspects had been arrested within the Netherlands in 2021, whereas 13 had been arrested in Spain, 10 in Belgium and 6 in France.
Six ‘high-value targets’ arrested
Europol mentioned six “high-value targets” had been arrested in Dubai.
One of the suspects arrested in Dubai allegedly imported 1000’s of kilos of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021, Dutch authorities mentioned.
The 37-year-old man, who has each Dutch and Moroccan nationality, can also be being prosecuted for laundering massive quantities of cash and possession of firearms.
He was investigated after police cracked the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC.
A 40-year-old Dutch-Bosnian citizen was additionally arrested in Dubai after an investigation based mostly on intercepted Sky ECC messages, Dutch police mentioned. He is suspected of importing cocaine and uncooked supplies for the manufacturing of amphetamines into Europe.
“This coordinated clampdown sends a strong message to criminals seeking sanctuary from law enforcement,” Europol mentioned.
Source: information.sky.com”