The National Police have arrested nine people and seized 23 kilos of heroin, the largest amount of this drug ever seized in the Canary Islands, as well as 5 kilos of ecstasy, 2.2kg of cocaine, 2 kilos of hashish, and 14 kilos of adulterating substance, in the biggest drugs bust in Gran Canaria in over a decade.
The detainees are six men and three women who had "an infrastructure" to smuggle the drugs between the airports of Amsterdam, where they had help from baggage handlers to get the drugs on planes, and Gran Canaria, taking advantage of the fact that hand luggage is not scanned or searched at destination airports when travelling within the Schengen area
This amount of drugs is equivalent to a million doses of heroin, 13,000 of ecstasy, and more than 5,000 of cocaine when prepared for sale, which, according to the Police, would be distributed from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to the rest of the Canary Islands.
The main cache was seized at the Gran Canaria airport, after two people "who were traveling separately taking all possible precautions" were arrested in possession of 15 kilos of the narcotics, while the rest were intercepted in four home searches of people linked to the criminal organization in various neighbourhoods of Las Palmas.
🚩Cae una organización en #LasPalmasDeGranCanaria y se intervienen casi 23 kilos de #heroína
— Policía Nacional (@policia) January 12, 2023
Tenía infraestructura para introducir la #droga entre los aeropuertos de #Ámsterdam y #GranCanaria
🔹9 detenidos
🔹➕13.000 dosis de #éxtasis y ➕5.000 dosis de #cocaína intervenidas pic.twitter.com/GrZUldgopO
The superior chief of the National Police in the Canary Islands, Jesús Gómez, said: "This is a very well-oiled organization", and explained that the police investigation has lasted for more than ten months, and has been "sophisticated" to get to this point.
He also detailed that the criminal group had "exit guarantees" in the Netherlands, which allowed them to bring the suitcases with the drug as hand luggage "perfectly, with a little clothing on top", without any kind of impediment, "evading security controls with very few worries."
“One of the characteristics that define this type of organization is the capacity for corruption that they have. Airport workers who facilitate the entry of the substance are frequently detained", explaining that at the moment he was not aware of any arrests at Amsterdam airport, although he has insisted that "they came very confidently and certain that no one was following them.”
Once in Gran Canaria, "they had a large network for storage, distribution, sales, and retail". Regarding the final destination, he has indicated that this drug moves mainly in urban environments and not in tourist areas because it is not a recreational drug.
After the procedures were carried out, of the nine detainees, four of them entered provisional detention by order of the judge.
