The Guardia Civil dismantled a criminal organisation that traded weaponry to drug trafficking organisations. Based in Murcia and with branches throughout southern Spain, they provided guns to drug traffickers to protect marijuana warehouses and plantations from potential takeovers by rival gangs. During 16 operations in Murcia, Alicante, and Cádiz, the Guardia Civil arrested 18 individuals and prosecuted six others.
Investigators in the Region of Murcia discovered a network in which people with gun licences lawfully purchased tactical weaponry and then delivered them to the organisation’s leaders, thus joining the criminal market. These front men then falsely reported them stolen or lost, diverting weapons such as rifles, civilian assault rifles, and police shotguns.
Following the arrest of one of these frontmen, police discovered the criminal organisation that actually funded the weapons purchase, which was located in the Murcia town of Alguazas.
The organisation also had branches in other regions, and some of its members had previously been arrested for involvement in arms and narcotics trafficking. They also had several police histories, including one for attempted murder with a firearm.
Links to other organisations
During the investigation into the Murcia criminal organisation, agents discovered another arms trafficking network in the province of Granada and recovered a dozen weapons, including military weaponry. Most of them were buried on a vacant lot, and there was an underground shooting range where they tested their guns.
Both organisations helped each other meet the needs of their clientele, who were largely other drug trafficking organisations. Among the weapons delivered were AK47 assault rifles, shotguns, and cutting-edge tactical rifles with handguns.
Weapons for Drug Trafficking
The Murcia organisation not only sold guns, but it also cultivated and distributed marijuana wholesale, with a large number of indoor planters.
Part of the weaponry they smuggled was intended to provide custody and security for these crops, preventing thefts by competing organisations known as “vuelcos.”
These plantations were remotely controlled by the organisation’s leaders via Wi-Fi video surveillance cameras, which they used to monitor both the members of the organisation who managed them (foremen, day labourers, electricians, etc.) and detect potential police surveillance or the presence of rivals attempting to steal their crops.
The Guardia Civil has located and removed five of these indoor marijuana plantations, confiscating the illegal firearms used to protect them in certain cases.
Extortion and Money laundering
Investigators also uncovered that the Murcia criminal organisation was involved in extorting money from persons who had taken out loans at extremely high interest rates.
The inmates pressured and blackmailed their borrowers to return the amounts lent, either in cash or, if they didn’t have any, by putting real estate or personal belongings in their or their relatives’ names.
They profited handsomely from all of these operations. During one of the raids, over 170,000 euros in cash was seized. They attempted to conceal and launder their criminal gains by purchasing houses and luxury cars registered in the names of third persons or front corporations.
Arrests and searched
The Guardia Civil conducted 16 simultaneous searches in the provinces of Murcia, Alicante, and Cádiz, securing 11 firearms (including an assault rifle and a submachine gun), 897 metal cartridges of various calibres (249 of which were live ammunition), a silencer, numerous weapon magazines, 173,500 euros in cash, 1,733 marijuana plants, 4.1 kilos of marijuana, 400 grams of cocaine, five luxury vehicles, and one stolen vehicle.
Five indoor intense marijuana production facilities and their related technical equipment (168 LED bulbs, 25 air conditioning units, 46 fans, and 11 extractors) have been decommissioned.
The Court of First Instance and Molina del Segura (Murcia) handled the investigation.
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