A restaurant in Puerto Banús as the center of operations, a yacht in Marbella for business meetings, armed Colombian escorts, thousands of euros in cash, and trucks to transport bales of hashish hidden in double bottoms. The reality of drug trafficking on the Costa del Sol has touches of fiction, but is the day-to-day of a relentless activity in which dozens of criminal organizations from multiple nationalities participate. The National Police has now dismantled a gang led by two German citizens of Moroccan and Iranian origin and with Colombian and Albanian members dedicated to introducing drugs by road into Germany from Andalusia. 14 people have been arrested since late 2022 and until last April in an operation in which seven firearms, over half a million euros in cash, and a ton of hashish were seized.
To find the origin of Operation Spirit, one must travel to Dax, a French municipality in the southern department of New Aquitaine (southwest France), almost 1,200 kilometers from Marbella. In December 2022, French authorities arrested three individuals of Colombian and Albanian nationality there—still in provisional detention—whom they found with 382,000 euros in cash hidden in the vehicle they were traveling in. The money trail led the agents to conclude that their destination was to fill the pockets of the leaders of a criminal organization based in Marbella. And that its origin was Germany, where it had served as payment for a hashish shipment transported from Spain. The French, Spanish, and German police then created a joint team to carry out the investigation.
The police work—coordinated in Spanish territory by Udyco Central—had its first consequences during the summer of 2023. In June, 140 kilos of hashish were seized in three different shipments sent from a company based in Jerez de la Frontera to another company located in Germany. Shortly after, a truck with 450 kilos of the same substance hidden among a load of lemons from Murcia was seized in Germany. In the warehouse where the goods were to be unloaded, another 400 kilos of drugs were located. The seizures focused on a group of individuals operating from southern Spain in towns like Marbella, Estepona, and in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Jerez de la Frontera. Surveillance on them intensified.
Investigators learned the details of a network led by two German citizens who ran a restaurant in Puerto Banús, in the Nueva Andalucía district, the epicenter of luxury in Marbella and where half a dozen shootings have occurred in the last three months. The establishment served as the operations center. The leaders of the gang held face-to-face meetings with other drug traffickers there, with constant protection from a group of armed Colombian escorts whose mission was to provide security against the danger of other criminal organizations attacking or trying to steal their merchandise, as explained by the National Police in a statement. The group also had a yacht moored in one of Marbella’s marinas, where meetings with other traffickers also took place.
The organization also had a series of drug storage centers that changed location to avoid detection in towns like Marbella, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and Utrera, the latter in the province of Seville. From these hideouts, they transported hashish by road to Germany, hiding it in car and truck double bottoms, although links to the motorcycle gang Hells Angels MC have also been detected in Spain and Germany. A few weeks ago, in April, the first arrests were made in Spain—two individuals in Marbella, five in Estepona, and one in the province of Seville—as well as in Wisbaden— a German city near Frankfurt—where two more were arrested. These arrests add to the three individuals detained in Dax at the end of 2022 and another in German territory in October 2023. During the 28 raids by police forces, 180,000 euros in cash, seven firearms, ammunition of various calibers, and 30 kilos of marijuana were seized.
