Paula Andrea, arrested as the leader of a drug transport organization, was caught on February 13 fleeing her home in Madrid with just over a million euros in cash. The money, stuffed in raffia supermarket bags, was distributed between the trunk and the back of his car, a high-end Mercedes valued at more than 140,000 euros. The Police believe that one of their people warned them that they had fallen. The rest of the members, 11 men, had just been arrested in an industrial warehouse in Alcobendas (Madrid, 123,300 inhabitants) with more than 3,200 kilos of cocaine, weapons of war and other effects related to drug trafficking, such as a satellite antenna to be able to have a connection on a drug boat. All have been placed in provisional prison.
Paula Andrea, about 47 years old, was in charge of managing the accounts. Investigators place her at the top of the criminal group along with Gilbert, her ex-partner, and in charge of supervising the logistical part. Among those arrested are also two children of the accountant.
That Friday, February 13, the woman grabbed some clothes, documentation and. The money was distributed in vacuum-packaged packages of 46,000 or 50,000 euros. Some had notes, which could indicate the people to whom they were going to be delivered, and which are being investigated. The transparent packages also had written spiritual messages of abundance adorned with hearts and smile emoticons such as “Gold and honey for me always” or “Everything that has been taken from you, I will give it back to you. Thank you, Universe.”
“It is likely that before the end of the ship was reached, someone notified the boss,” believes one of the investigators of this operation, about which the National Police reported this Tuesday. When the Police arrest drug trafficking organizations, they usually mobilize the Special Operations Group (GEO), specialized in high-risk situations. The agents examine the area little by little and secure it, in that time frame, they were able to alert her.
The total amount of drugs seized, for the Community of Madrid, in which it is not usual to intercept such a quantity together. However, that has not been the aspect that has stood out the most, but rather the elusive and innovative character of the criminal group.
The organization functioned as a “service provider” for other drug traffickers and could have been acting “for several years” depending on demand. “They had an important structure and guts to move 3,400 kilos of cocaine,” said Chief Inspector José Francisco Podio, of the Central Drug and Organized Crime Unit (Udyco Central), during a press conference at the Canillas Police Complex, in Madrid.
The group was in charge of collecting quantities of drugs on order in the south of Spain, especially in river areas, and took them in convoys to Madrid, and then delivered them to the next link in the drug trafficking chain. The members pretended they were construction workers. They entered and left the two warehouses investigated, one in Alcobendas and the other Fuente del Saz (Madrid, 7,400 inhabitants) dressed as workers and selected the ideal moment for their road trips, which they made in rented vehicles. “They chose the hours when there was more traffic or with normal work activity to go unnoticed,” detailed inspector Manuel Llorente, from Udyco of the Madrid Headquarters.
Udyco agents from Madrid began investigating them in mid-2024, but they took a break and its members left for Holland. After some time, they returned to Madrid and resumed their activity, the agents say. Last July, agents from the Central Narcotics Brigade received information from Sweden, Poland and Portugal about a truck that they had seized with drugs and that came from Spain. The starting point of the drugs was the Alcobendas ship in which they ended up capturing a large part of the organization and seized the drugs, “minutes after arriving.”
During the investigation, called operation Tocada Space, they have managed to document one of those drug transport routes, in which the members of the organization traveled to an area near San Juan del Puerto (Huelva), slept for several days in the surroundings of Seville and returned to Madrid.
The members of the organization took great security measures to move around, something that made the investigation very laborious. They used “old-fashioned” methods, with a multitude of surveillance and patience, the researchers emphasize.
Two of the inverted vehicles had sophisticated hidden compartments, also called coves. One of them, installed in a black Audi vehicle, gave access to a warehouse where they kept pistols and weapons of war. This Tuesday, the car kept a rosary of black beads on the gear lever. The other cove, arranged in a white vehicle, was designed to store drugs.
The agents found the cocaine arranged in bundles, separated into gray wrappers, each with a ribbon of a different color, and marked with different logos. They had been doused with gasoline so that they could not be detected by smell.
A diving suit, which was found wet and with traces of mud, and a Star Link antenna, used to have an internet connection in areas without coverage, have also been seized. Investigators believe that the suit could have been worn by a representative of the organization that owns the drug, to prove that it was delivered as agreed.
The investigation is still open. The economic derivative, which has already been taken over by the Central Economic and Financial Crime Unit (UDEF), and new investigations related to the people who sent the drugs and those who were going to receive them, are still ongoing.
