A police operation centered in the north of the Arousa estuary has once again exposed the links of Galician boatmen with international cocaine distribution networks operating in Central Europe, for which they carry out the landing and concealment of the drug as specialized service companies that drop off bales at sea and unload them on land. But this past Saturday, one of them fell with the entire team: 1,410 kilos of cocaine that the group known as Os Fanchos had hidden in a shed near a beach in A Pobra do Caramiñal (A Coruña) supposedly to be delivered to one of the cells that make up the powerful Balkan Clan.
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Three alleged accomplices of the landing were arrested in the operation, among whom the Police highlight Rafael Rivas Gey as the leader of the Os Fanchos clan, to whom they attribute the highest link in the group as responsible for coordinating the reception and custody of the drug. Alongside him, two collaborators of Rivas were arrested in the landing and concealment on land of this shipment, one of them Croatian, who was in charge of supervising the delivery of the cargo to its owners, according to the Police.
The investigation by agents of the Greco Galicia Unit of the Central Narcotics Brigade has had the collaboration of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to prevent the drug from leaving Galicia and reaching the Central European consumer, its final destination. The last phase of the operation began on August 20, after agents were warned that two boats picked up a significant shipment at sea that had been landed on a beach in A Pobra do Caramiñal.
According to the first information gathered by the Police, the Os Fanchos clan was in charge of tasks related to the unloading and subsequent custody of the narcotic. The investigations focused especially on the clan leader, being identified as one of the people who had coordinated the shipment. From that moment, different devices were established to determine his degree of participation, according to sources from the Ministry of the Interior.
Despite taking extreme security measures to avoid detection, last Friday, investigators observed a first movement of the group that put them on alert. At 06:55 they were able to confirm how a vehicle arrived at Rivas’s home, the main suspect. Shortly after, a person leaving that house with a backpack got into that same vehicle, whose occupants adopted numerous security measures to prevent agents from detecting and following them.
During the early hours of August 22, the clan leader, accompanied by two other men, made several trips from his home to a shed located in front of his property, very close to O Conchido beach. Then, agents observed how the three individuals began to move heavy bundles from the shed to another house located in the same municipality. Due to their characteristics and the way they were being handled, investigators suspected they could be packages of cocaine.
Faced with the evidence that the transfer and concealment of the narcotic was taking place, the three involved were arrested and the drug seized. Once the narcotic substance was secured, agents conducted searches at the alleged group leader’s home, the shed, and a third house to which the bundles had been moved.
In addition to the cocaine, 100 grams of heroin, cash, and other items of interest to the investigation were found during the searches. The detainees have been brought before the court as alleged responsible for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization and drug trafficking. After testifying this Monday, the judge ordered their imprisonment.
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