The National Police has arrested the five alleged members of a gang that camouflaged up to 200 kilos of cocaine in furniture simulating moves from Panama to the port of Valencia, where they stored them to later distribute the drugs to other parts of the country.
The arrests took place on August 21 when those involved, after loading the merchandise hidden in the furniture into two vehicles, were heading to Madrid, according to the Police Headquarters, to be sold.
However, it was at the beginning of July when the agents began the investigations after being alerted by international mechanisms of the possible arrival at the port of Valencia of a "contaminated" shipment from Panama whose final destination was a furniture storage company in a town near Valencia.
The agents began to intensify their surveillance of this company and found that just the day before the arrests of those investigated, they had unsuccessfully tried to steal the furniture with drugs, which confirmed suspicions of the existence of a criminal group.
For this reason, on August 21, the agents observed how several men aboard two vehicles – a moving van and a car – went to the warehouse and loaded the suspicious furniture.
During the journey, the members of the criminal group carried out various maneuvers and stops to detect possible police follow-up, even throwing their mobile phones out the window as a security measure.
Given the difficulties that the follow-up presented, the agents decided to stop them, to which the detainees responded by fleeing and trying to ram the police vehicle.
Once intercepted and arrested, the investigators seized the multiple pieces of furniture, in which they found, covered in insulating foam, 200 kilograms of cocaine divided into 185 bricks and 550 euros in cash.
The two vehicles in which they were traveling and two mobile phones were also seized.
