High-powered inflatable boats brought cocaine and hashish to Spain from North African countries. In the middle of the Mediterranean, members of the criminal group moved the drugs to bigger boats that eventually moored on the island of Ibiza. There, the drugs were kept and subsequently sent to other European nations or dispersed throughout the Balearic Islands. The National Police and the Guardia Civil in the Balearic Islands think that the criminal group that is responsible for trafficking these substances, which is led by the United Tribuns motorcycle gang, has been broken up. This gang had a lot of ties to other groups in Europe. In one phase of this operation, the former head of drugs for the National Police in the Balearic Islands, Faustino Nogales, was arrested and remains in pretrial custody, accused of working with the organisation.
The Guardia Civil stopped a ship going from the port of Ibiza to Palma last September and found 200 kilos of hashish on board. This started Operation Manso Enroque Bal. On July 9th, 675 kilogrammes of cocaine were confiscated in the port of Valencia. This was the next big raid. The drugs were picked up from another ship in an unidentified part of the Mediterranean and then taken to Ibiza, where they stayed for a few days before being sent to Spain and other European countries. “They used fast inflatable boats from North African countries to get the drugs into Spain.” Paco Molina, a spokesman for the Guardia Civil in the Balearic Islands, said, “At a certain point in the Mediterranean, they moved the drugs to another ship that took them to the island of Ibiza, where they were kept until they could be sent to mainland Spain or the rest of the Balearic Islands.”
In August, the arrest of 15 members, including the commander of the United Tribuns, Stefan Milojević, and Inspector Faustino Nogales, who used to be in charge of the National Police’s Narcotics Unit in the Balearic Islands, was one of the organisation’s heaviest blows. After going to court, both were held in jail. Nogales was accused of working with the gang, and Milojević was accused of overseeing the importation and distribution of drugs. Investigators’ searches and arrests in August, September, and October shut down several tiny drug-dealing spots in places like Palma. One of the busiest distribution centres was in the Son Banya shantytown.
Alejandro Becerra, the spokesperson for the Balearic Islands National Police, said that one of the biggest problems investigators had was that the gang members employed advanced techniques to avoid being traced and found. Becerra added, “They used a lot of surveillance and counter-surveillance methods, like electronic tracking and geolocation devices, to try to stay hidden.” During the raids, police took night-vision goggles, tracking beacons, cell phones, and computers. The operation ended with the police taking €1,543,300, 687 kilos of cocaine, 2,500 kilos of hashish, two kilos of marijuana, four marijuana farms with more than 1,500 plants, one kilo of methamphetamine, speed, heroin, LSD, and ecstasy tablets.
The Provincial Court of Palma tried five of the people captured in this operation in 2022 and gave them 15 years in jail for drug trafficking. Milojević was given a year and a half in prison, but he didn’t serve it since the court deferred his sentence because he didn’t have a criminal record. Lawyer Gonzalo Márquez represented the five suspects. He was also arrested in this police operation and charged with helping with the suspected money laundering. Milojević had been arrested before in 2020 and had also been looked at for earlier seizures of synthetic narcotics and marijuana.
Author: Derek Appleton
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