Highly dangerous drug trafficking gang boss caught on Spain’s Costa Almeria

THE head of one of the most important criminal networks in Almeria is under arrest.

Police said 34-year-old CMGG was the leader of an organisation dedicated to drug trafficking on a large scale, and described him as “very violent” and “highly dangerous.”

Investigations into the Almeria-based group were launched last summer, revealing they were growing the drug in large amounts, as well as details of the criminal structure and who did what job.

In February’s ‘Operation Sinse,’ police made 15 arrests and seized 630 kilos of marihuana and €38,000 in cash in raids on nine properties. However, the 34-year-old gang boss managed to slip through the police net and his whereabouts were unknown.

Investigators had meanwhile concluded he was the one who pulled the trigger in a shooting in the provincial capital in early September, injuring a father and son. Police believe it has been a falling out between rivals over a claim on marihuana hidden on one of the organisation’s properties.

CMGG went everywhere armed, police said, and had the job of keeping an eye on the nine properties the criminals used as marihuana plantations and providing security to deter anyone from acting on suspicions about what was going on.

The nature of his work meant he was an elusive character, who continually changed his routine and operated under the assumption he was being watched 24 hours a day.

After two months of intensive and highly discreet police monitoring in different locations and at different hours of the day and night, the 34-year-old was detained in a property in the Cañada de San Urbano neighbourhood.

It also turned out that he had been keeping a woman with whom he’d been in a relationship with against her will, not letting her go outside alone.

When police went into the home he was living in they found a hiding space hidden under a pile of clothes and with access to a balcony.

When officers cuffed the suspect he did his best to fight them off, attacking a number of officers.

He is now in prison awaiting trial on charges of membership of a criminal gang, drug trafficking, defrauding the electricity supply, illegal ownership of a firearm, attempted homicide and illegal detention.