The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, Europol, has announced the bust of a worldwide drug trafficking network and cocaine worth billions of dollars has been seized.
Investigators detained 15 people while seizing 17 tonnes of the stimulant substance and valuables worth approximately $87 million.
According to Europol, the ring, one of the busiest trafficking organizations in Brazil, has flooded Europe with massive shipments of cocaine.
The group claimed that all of the gang’s members, including its Paraguayan suppliers, shipping companies, and money launderers who handled the revenues, were killed.
Investigators conducted 37 searches, seized 173 vehicles, took possession of one aircraft, barred 66 businesses, froze the accounts of 147 individuals, and searched 37 places.
The Spanish authorities have confiscated the assets of alleged gang members in the investigation dubbed “Operation Hinterland.
The European police agency said the action, which lasted two years, was coordinated from two Brazilian command centres and involved police in France and Spain.
The probe began with a tip from the German Customs after it seized 316 kilos of cocaine in the port of Hamburg in December 2020.
After intel that a Brazilian company was behind the shipment, investigators uncovered routes used to smuggle cocaine from Paraguay in trucks before exporting it to Europe.
