Around a dozen people have been arrested in Alicante, Torrevieja and San Vicente del Raspeig during a major National Police operation targeting an alleged criminal network involved in migrant smuggling and drug trafficking.
The National Police launched a large-scale operation yesterday across three municipalities in Alicante province, deploying dozens of officers, including members of the elite GEO and GOES units, in a coordinated series of raids.
The operation comes just one week after a major police action in Alicante province against a Chechen group accused of jihadist terrorism. In this latest case, investigators are targeting an organisation allegedly dedicated to smuggling migrants by boat from Algeria to Spain and to drug trafficking. Sources close to the case said investigators have not ruled out a possible link to arms trafficking.
The operation, which was still ongoing yesterday, is understood to have possible ramifications in Murcia and Almería. Around a dozen people were arrested in Alicante, Torrevieja and San Vicente del Raspeig.
The investigation is being led by officers from the Central Unit for Illegal Immigration Networks and Document Forgery (UCRIF), attached to the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders, together with the UCRIF unit of the Alicante Immigration and Borders Brigade.
For the operational phase, investigators were supported by two elite National Police units: the Special Operations Group (GEO) and the Special Operational Security Group (GOES). Officers from these units carried out the initial entries in two of the raids, in Torrevieja and Alicante, as a precaution against a possible violent response from suspects who may have been armed.
Also taking part in the operation were officers from the Technical Intervention Operational Group (GOIT), Citizen Security units, canine units and personnel from the North and Central police stations in Alicante. Court officials were also present to record the entries and searches, as well as the material seized.
More than six searches
Police carried out more than six searches across Alicante province, three of them in the city of Alicante. All began simultaneously at 8 a.m.
In Calle Alemania, in central Alicante, officers forced entry into a property after breaking down the front door. The search lasted around two hours, after which officers left the property carrying several small sealed boxes containing seized material.
However, the two tenants who were asleep inside the property were not arrested. One of them, Ahmed, a Pakistani national, told this newspaper that he has lived in Spain for more than 25 years and has never been arrested.
“I have never done anything wrong to anyone,” he said. Ahmed, who said he runs a clothing shop on Calle Bailén, added: “They asked me if I sold drugs and if I had weapons, but I don’t do that.”
He said he intended to file a complaint over injuries he claims he suffered when police restrained him at the start of the search. “Where are the drugs and the guns?” he asked.
According to Ahmed, officers seized €800 from him, money he said he had intended to use to buy merchandise for his business. He also said that when he later went to the police station with the property owner to seek an explanation, the owner was arrested.
