Maleficent seven rounded up by police
Two homes were used by the gang as laboratories to prepare and package cocaine
NATIONAL Police investigating a gang of suspected drug dealers in the Vega Baja area have made seven arrests in Almoradí, Los Montesinos and Rojales.
Officers spent four months looking into what a spokesman called a structured criminal organisation.
They operated on two levels which controlled all the phases of drug trafficking, from receiving the substance, principally cocaine, treating and adulterating it, storing it and distributing it to other dealers and end users.
The gang was active all over Alicante province but especially in the Vega Baja, he noted.
A multitude of enquiries and surveillance operations enabled officers to discover that the gang had two homes they used as laboratories to prepare and package the cocaine, and then store it until it was distributed by other members.
“All the gang members led a high standard of living,” the spokesman assured.
Officers were forced to act earlier than they had planned when they observed
a significant transaction while they were on a stakeout.
They arrested two people and seized 800 grams of cocaine and €33,700 in cash.
After this a special operation was launched which managed to arrest all the gang members and search five homes (in Almoradí, Los Montesinos, Rojales and Alicante), from where they seized another 1,300g of cocaine, €63,000 in cash, 13 fake €500 notes, three 9mm calibre pistols with their serial numbers filed off and ammunition, as well as five vehicles and an array of materials for treating and handling drugs.
The seven suspects are Colombian and Spanish citizens aged between 28 and 58.
They are accused of belonging to a criminal organisation, drug dealing and illegal possession of weapons.
A court in Torrevieja has ordered three of them to be jailed on remand.