European scale drugs gang brought down

A criminal drug gang operating in Poland and Spain on a European level has been brought down.

The Guardia Civil, the National Police and the Polish Police in coordination with Europol, have dismantled an organised criminal gang operating in Poland and Spain, dedicated to crimes against public health and drug trafficking on a large scale.

Nine people were arrested, two cannabis plantations were found with more than 1,400 plants and 25 kilograms of marijuana-derived products prepared for distribution.

The group could have shipped more than 1.2 tons of cannabis worth almost €5,315,000 into Poland. The assets seized from the organisation, including luxury villas in Spain, are valued at almost €5 million.

According to the findings so far, the criminal gang was engaged in drug trafficking and its wholesale marketing in large quantities of cannabis from Spain to Poland. The detainees are Polish citizens, aged 30 to 45, who lived in both Poland and Spain.

The first investigations revealed that some of the suspects were related to a group of hooligan football fans of one of the sports clubs in Krakow.

According to the investigators, the criminal organisation carried out its activity between 2016-2021 and during this period it is estimated that they were able to circulate more than 1.2 tons of cannabis with an estimated value of around €5,315,000 in Poland.

The Alicante National Police and the Valencia Civil Guard, assisted by Police Officers from the CBSP Field Office in Krakow, initially detained 5 Polish citizens, of which 3 of them had European Arrest and Extradition Orders issued by Polish judicial authorities.

The Poles detained in Spain were subject to extradition proceedings, while those detained in Poland were ordered to three months of provisional imprisonment.

Seven of them, participants in the large-scale international drug trafficking criminal group, face prison terms of up to 15 years in Poland. Two detainees will be criminally responsible under Spanish law.

Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to check The Euro Weekly News for all your up-to-date local and international news stories.