Attempt to get cocaine through Malaga port thwarted

NATIONAL Police and customs officers have thwarted an attempt to get cocaine through Malaga port.

Eight people have been arrested in the investigation dubbed operation ‘Aladin’, five of them Malaga port workers. Officers also seized eight kilos of cocaine after carrying out raids in six locations.

The consignment of the drug had been a “symbolic” amount to test out a plan to make Malaga an alternative route for introducing drugs into Spain to ports like Algeciras and Barcelona, according to Spanish media reports.

The drugs had been taken out of a container from Puerto de Salvador in Brazil and registered at Valencia port, with Malaga as the final destination.

Police said the drug trafficking organisation had been in regular contact with workers at the Costa del Sol port since the end of last year.

The authorities stressed the “extreme security measures” used by some of the individuals they had investigated, even to the extent of using encryption systems to communicate.

The investigation also revealed that one of the suspects grew marijuana for sale and distribution in the Cartama area. A lorry loaded with 37 kilos of marijuana which set out from this location was intercepted on the French border.