The National Police has dismissed a criminal network dedicated to organizing trips from Morocco to Spain with “mixed charges”, simultaneously carrying migrants and drugs, mainly hashish, to have more profits. The investigations attribute to the group the clandestine entry of at least 200 Moroccan migrants. Only with people traffic, the network would have obtained more than two million euros, according to police estimates.
The “complete pack” for a migrant could reach 14,600 euros. In that amount of money, accommodation in Castillejos, Moroccan town on the other side of the border of Ceuta; that an diver will guide them to cross swim or travel on a precarious vessel to the autonomous city; stay in a “security floor”; And another trip on a fiber boat to Algeciras (Cádiz) in adverse conditions, with bad weather, without life jackets and guided by patterns without experience, sometimes minor.
In the operation, in which Europol has collaborated, eight people have been arrested, one of them minor, in Algeciras (four), Ceuta (three) and Ibiza (UN). Two of them, considered group leaders, have entered preventive detention.
Those involved were organized at three levels. On the cusp there were two leaders who controlled the operation of the group and their financing from Ceuta and Ibiza. They coordinated the routes, established contacts on both sides of the border and managed the payments that required migrants, police sources explain. On the second level were the in charge of the maritime crossing, including the minors, to those who taught to handle vessels, and people who were responsible for guiding migrants to cross the border of the Tarajal ,. They did it with scooters Underwater, small propulsion vehicles used by divers. The third level included those involved who gave them support on land. Those who were in charge of the transfer of migrants to security floors and watching them, guarding the drug they were going to spend on the boat to the peninsula or collecting the money from the trip.
The criminal network held migrants in Ceuta until they paid everything agreed for their trip, as reported on Thursday by the National Police. “Many remained in precarious conditions, with little access to food and under constant threats,” says this police force. They only released them when the weather conditions allowed the journey to the coast of Algeciras.
The crossings were especially dangerous. To the inexperience of the people who patrone the ship, it joins that they did not have life jackets, navigation devices or any other security measures. “They used to operate in adverse weather conditions,” says the police force.
The risk of shipwreck was multiplied by the large amount of weight with which the boats loaded. The number of people traveling “far exceeded” the capacity and this was added the weight of the drug, which was traveling in large backpacks.
The records in Algeciras, Ceuta and Ibiza, made in the final phase of the investigation, have mobilized a hundred agents. In the operation, 47,000 euros have been intervened in cash, two vessels, five vehicles, various jewels, gasoline carafes and several white weapons. Also 22 kilos of hashish and 10,800, used to perform the drug known as Karkubi, or “drug of the poor.”
