Spanish police dismantle international cocaine smuggling operation

Drug trafficking is big business and, as such, it has suppliers, buyers, intermediaries, logisticians, and investors. In recent months, the Spanish National Police have dismantled a complex scheme comprising criminals of various nationalities who had to seek financial help from an Albanian mafia group to pay to smuggle a cache of 100 kilos of cocaine from Ecuador into Spain. Operation Botnia resulted in the seizure of the drugs and the arrest of 10 people in Spain and a further two in Colombia. Among the latter, Bulent Aslanoglu, alias “El Padrino,” a dual Swedish-German national who is considered by the Swedish police to be the former leader of a gang called Södertälje and who was listed as HVT (High Value Target) for his alleged connection with drug trafficking. The Spanish Ministry of the Interior described the operation as an “unprecedented blow to the structure of one of the most powerful international criminal organizations.”

The investigation began just over a year ago, in early 2023, when agents of the Spanish Drugs and Organized Crime Unit (Udyco) detected meetings in Madrid and Málaga between alleged drug traffickers from various organizations. Among them were three old acquaintances of the Spanish security forces. One was Asnaloglu, who was arrested in 2013 in Málaga for his involvement in a shipment of 246 kilos of cocaine seized in France. The other two were the Atrach brothers, French citizens of Moroccan origin and the alleged ringleaders of a gang specializing in the reception and storage of drugs in Spain. The investigations indicated that the three were allegedly organizing the smuggling of large quantities of cocaine from Colombia, a country where Asnaloglu had contacts with producers.

The investigations took a twist at the end of last year, when agents detected the arrival on the scene of Lucien Berisha, the alleged head of an Albanian mafia clan in Spain, and his lieutenant, Kujtim Tanase. According to the investigation, Asnaloglu and the Atrach brothers had contacted them through a Moroccan based on the Costa del Sol, who allegedly played the role of intermediary to obtain financing. Surveillance revealed that after these initial contacts the Albanians began to travel frequently to their home country and the city-emirate of Dubai, which with its 3.4 million inhabitants and very high standard of living has become a sanctuary for drug lords in the last five years.

Investigators suspect that the alleged Albanian criminals were making these trips to inform their bosses in both locations about the possibility of financial participation in the operation. “It was something very similar to a capital increase,” said sources familiar with the investigation. Once the approval of the bosses had been obtained — and despite the arrest in December of Berisha on the orders of the Tirana authorities, who were trying to track him down to serve a 20-year sentence for murder — the various groups involved intensified their meetings, allegedly with the aim of arranging a first shipment of drugs by air from Guayaquil (Ecuador).

The first phase of the operation took place last April, after the agents detected that four Albanians — residents of Tarragona, Spain, and allegedly members of what in police jargon is known as the “operational arm” of the network — were travelling by car to a warehouse located in an industrial estate in Fuenlabrada (Madrid). The police then decided to blow the operation and arrest them. When the agents raided the premises, the suspects were trying to pack the 100 kilos of cocaine distributed in backpacks into false compartments in two vehicles. Simultaneously, Tanase (who had taken Berisha’s place) and the mediator were arrested in Marbella when they held a meeting, supposedly to coordinate the reception of the drugs and their subsequent distribution to Catalonia and, from there, to Europe.

After that first strike, the Spanish High Court issued eight international arrest warrants for the rest of the identified members of the group. On May 9, Asnaloglu, who was in Colombia to coordinate the operation, and a Colombian alleged to be a member of the group producing the drug, were arrested. A second person of Colombian nationality was also arrested the same day at Madrid-Barajas airport upon landing.

Of the 12 arrested — 10 in Spain and two in Colombia — 11 have been remanded in custody. The last, a woman who allegedly played a secondary role in the scheme, has been released on bail. Two more suspects remain at large. The police believe that this operation, which also involved the seizure of $424,000 in crypto-assets, has dismantled the group’s logistical base in Spain.

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