Twenty-eight people have been arrested in Portugal as part of an operation against an international drug trafficking network based in Spain.
In total 69 people have been arrested - 28 in Portugal, 26 in Spain and 15 in Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. 3.5 tons of cocaine worth €9 million was seized in an operation that has smashed the gang.
The criminal network trafficked drugs by sea between Latin America and Europe and its members have been under surveillance for two years as each link in the chain was identified and tracked.
This was a Spanish operation with the collaboration of police forces in Portugal, the UK, Germany, Australia, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
Mr Big was living in Madrid posing as a sports agent and used old Serbian army contacts to import drugs in huge quantities.
Cocaine sometimes was brought in by sea-going yachts that made the crossing between Latin America and Spain, but the largest quantities of the drug came in on merchant ships.
The drugs either were thrown overboard in bags and picked up by small boats off the Spanish coast, or they were concealed in containers onboard commercial vessels without the owners’ knowledge and picked up after docking.
The Madrid boss subcontracted the money laundering to a money transfer company with branches in Madrid, Barcelona, Vigo and Lisbon, offering a 5% commission on the sums laundered.
Cash was sent to Portugal concealed in vehicles and later transferred to accounts in Brazil with the full complicity and cooperation of the banks invlved.
Police sources estimate that around €50 million was banked by the network in the past few years without a single Portuguese bank alerting the authorities to any suspicious transfers.
