Policemen infiltrated in the narco: the film operation that stopped the arrival of 2,000 kilos of coca

This story begins as a Narcos or Fariña episode might do: with a tip-off.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
04 June 2023 Sunday 10:21
16 Reads
Policemen infiltrated in the narco: the film operation that stopped the arrival of 2,000 kilos of coca

This story begins as a Narcos or Fariña episode might do: with a tip-off. Besides:

The following scenes describe this film operation. All the data and the succession of events correspond to the investigation, the trial and the sentence.

That is the story of four infiltrated policemen. Gallo, Deba, Arba and Avia, undercover agents who dismantled an organization of Colombian drug traffickers from the Boyacos clan who introduced two tons of cocaine, worth 83 million euros at market price A stroke of luck from the North American department that fights against drug trafficking (DEA) was the fuse that started this: infiltrated police, marked coke, a boat trip from Colombia to Vigo, and a whole network of lies.

It all starts eight years ago. The US anti-drug trafficking service - dependent on the US Government's Department of Justice - has seized a shipment of two tons of cocaine from a Colombian cartel, the Boyacos, which was to be transferred by boat to Spain.

Instead of proceeding with the arrests of those who transported the merchandise and settling the matter, the DEA contacts the Spanish police. The cocaine originated from some point in Colombia and was destined for Vigo, where the exchange was to take place.

A judge from the Galician city enters the scene together with the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office, who authorize an operation to pretend that the ship with the drugs was following its course and thus be able to arrest those responsible for the cartel in Spain. Thus, the agents choose to start a risky operation to transfer the coca to Vigo. They have to make the cartel bosses believe that everything is continuing, while they infiltrate the organization in Spain with the police and find the organization's envoys in Galicia. What the policemen suspect is that the Boyacos clan is preparing a Spanish base.

The operation is organized for six months. First thing, prepare the drug. Two agents go to the DEA premises, which guards the seized bundles in Miami. The coca is marked so as not to lose its traceability. There are 103 bundles wrapped with stripes of different colors and one larger one with a black X. Neither the recipients in Spain nor the distributors know anything.

While the drug should be traveling on a freighter across the ocean, it actually leaves a Miami airport to Madrid-Barajas, guarded by an American agent and two police officers from the Galician Organized Crime Response Groups (Greco). . Once landed, she goes to the Galicia Police Headquarters in A Coruña. It is stored and guarded.

During that time, the infiltrated agents managed to gain the trust of the two emissaries of the Boyacos who had gone to Spain to control the landing and distribution of the merchandise. The Colombian cartel's plan is for the drug to be divided in half between two of its men, Julio Peñaranda –alias 'El Loco'- and Ronal Alfredo Roa -known as 'El Mono'-. Both are commissioned to sell it and place it in Spain.

The infiltrated agents manage to find a gap to get into the head in the organization. Colombians need people to be in charge of moving the drugs from the ship to land and taking them to a safe place until they pass them on to the new buyers. When looking for Spanish personnel who could carry out the order, it was where the moles got in.

On February 13, 2017, Peñaranda received the news from his superiors that the merchandise was already on land:

The machine starts to work.

Julio, alias 'El Loco', is against the clock: he has to find a safe place for the drugs and notify the buyers so that they prepare the money.

Ronal follows the same steps as 'El Loco'. It is done with new prepaid phones to avoid leaving a trace. He meets with intermediaries and distributors, looks for a safe place and cars for the transfer. He has ten days to close the deal.

Through intermediaries they begin to meet with people who could do part of the work for them. Although they are recommended, they were not known before. That's where 'Gallo' comes in. He meets with Ronal and the people he trusts to take charge of his game and distribute it.

The plan was for "Gallo" to move the drugs from the ship in a van with a double bottom. They fit up to 150 kilos. 'El Mono' gives you all the details.

But before landing, the Colombians want something else from 'Gallo'.

The buyers demand proof of the quality of the drug so the undercover agent must bring them a sample.

The branch of the organization led by Peñaranda would take charge of 1,000 kilograms of cocaine distributed in 50 bales (20 kilos each), while Ronal's would take charge of the 53 bales (a total of 1,102 kilograms).

Two branches, two simultaneous operations. While 'Gallo' met with 'El Mono' in a restaurant in El Padrón, another undercover agent under the alias Arba met with Peñaranda -'El Loco'- in a restaurant in the A Laxe shopping center. The agents, who had been sent from the Madrid headquarters, were controlled at all times by other Greco Galicia police officers.

After these first meetings, the Vigo judge decides that two other undercover agents go into action: Avia and Deba. They will be in charge of taking the drug samples. The head of the four undercover records all of his movements. Both the magistrate and Anti-Drug are aware of every detail, every advance.

At the police station, they prepare two packages of cocaine to be able to show samples of the drug to future buyers. That sample would return immediately to the Police office where it is guarded after completing its mission. Everything is documented.

The meeting place to take the merchandise sample is a hotel in Santiago de Compostela. 'Deba' waits in a room. One of the buyer's men appears in the room. He puts on some plastic gloves and opens the bag where the coke is kept with a knife. Something doesn't convince you. The drug does not seem entirely good to him: the low smell of it, the logo or brand of it, there is something wrong with it. He asks for more time to check its quality. He keeps a sample for himself and leaves the hotel, careful not to leave any traces in the room.

Before leaving, he leaves a phone card on the sofa. That would be where he would call him to continue with the operation. And once again the same warning: messages only, no calls.

With the other branch, that of Ronal, the steps are similar. Meeting in a public place, from there transfer to a hotel, where the merchandise would be tested in a room:

The quality test is passed.

The following is the delivery by the organization of the heated cars to hide the drugs inside without being detected. This time the meeting is in a shopping center in Vigo. 'Arba' would be in charge of collecting them. The keys are handed over in a cafeteria. The car is parked in the parking lot. Peñaranda himself goes to give the instructions: where are the hidden compartments, how to open them and the amount of drugs that must be placed in each one of them, a total of 60 kilograms of cocaine. He hands her the keys and the parking ticket, which shows the vehicle's license plate. Finally, a clear warning: the upload must be done as soon as possible.

Same operation with Ronal. Gallo, Deba and Avia appear to meet.

Everything goes smoothly so the time had come. Chosen day, February 27, 2017. The Police load the heated cars with packages of innocuous substance substitute for the drug but in packages identical to the original ones. The Police run out of that simulated substance so another party has to occupy it with bricks of the same cocaine intervened in custody.

Once the cars are ready, Gallo, Deba, Arba and Avia hit the road. Two of the cars go to the fixed parking lot and go to the meeting point to give the keys to Peñaranda. He, accompanied by his trusted man and his wife, as well as the two final recipients of the drug, leave the establishment. On leaving the center, they are surrounded by police officers who proceed to arrest them. When he is arrested he carries the car keys with a thousand kilos of cocaine.

At the same time, one of Ronal's men realizes that something is wrong and sends a message to one of the undercover men he had met to make the exchange:

In order not to arouse suspicion, the agent tells him that he is also leaving. J.M. He does not give news again so the delivery could not be made.

He disappears but Ronal, who has no news of such suspicions, continues with the plan. He meets Gallo in a hotel in Padrón (La Coruña) to return the keys to the already loaded cars. At the moment he gives them to him, several agents appear and arrest the Colombian and his men, in addition to simulating the arrest of the undercover men. The complete drug cache was made up of a total of 2,091 packages, which yielded a total net weight of 2,095.91 kilograms of cocaine worth 83.4 million euros.

The operation is a complete success. The agents manage to escape unharmed and the drug traffickers arrested. They were going to spend several years in the shade.

Six years later, on February 21, 2023, the trial began. Peñaranda acknowledged the facts and his participation, for which he has been sentenced by the National Court to eight years in prison for a crime against public health involving substances that cause serious damage to health (cocaine), in an amount of notorious importance, with belonging to a criminal organization, and in extremely serious behaviors. Ronal, for the same crimes, to 10 years in prison. In total, 15 convicted without knowing who gave the orders from Colombia.