WATCH: Dramatic arrest of suspected drug traffickers in Madrid Spain

IN what looked like a scene from a movie, National Police swung into action and prevented the handing over of a consignment of 700 kilos of cocaine in the car-park of a Madrid shopping centre.

Officers caught and arrested three suspected drug traffickers who had come to pick up the drugs at the Alcala de Henares mall.

Spanish police had been working alongside the Colombian Organised Crime Delegate, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the North Macedonian Police Organised Crime Unit in an investigation into the drugs sales set-up.

The Colombian agents, in collaboration with the DEA, had since the summer detected a series of contacts between a criminal gang in North Macedonia and organised criminals producing cocaine in Columbian. The deal was to send 700 kilos of cocaine by sea to Spain to then be distributed in different European countries.

Investigators discovered the gang leader had travelled to Spain and had stepped up meetings with the individuals with the job of organising the logistics of picking up the drugs.

The authorities established that the criminals’ plan was for the drugs to be collected after buying various items in a sports shop, the cocaine having been stashed in the back of a van in the car-park.

But the police were watching their every move, and thwarted the coke delivery.  

At the same time the North Macedonian authorities made two further arrests. One was the brother of a suspect detained in Spain.

Police said the operation remained open.