• Seven searches were carried out with nine arrests, eight of them in prison

• Seven kilos of cocaine, 112,000 euros, 20 high-powered vehicles and four firearms seized

• Some vehicles had caches for transporting drugs.

April 1, 2025.- Customs Surveillance Officers of the Tax Agency in Extremadura and National Police officers assigned to the police stations of Badajoz, Cáceres and Don Benito, proceeded on March 27 to arrest nine people for the alleged authorship of a crime of drug trafficking and criminal organization.

The investigation began earlier this year into a network based in the La Serena region that allegedly smuggled large amounts of drugs into the region and subsequently distributed them to smaller traffickers.

The suspects lived in the towns of Don Benito, Villanueva de la Serena, and Almendralejo. The officers observed that the members of the group under investigation took numerous security measures in their movements and contacts.

The distribution of functions was clearly hierarchical, and its members had clearly defined positions and responsibilities. They used sophisticated technological means of communication and vehicles equipped with hidden compartments to ensure the transport of drugs from one point to another.

On March 24, investigators suspected the possible transfer of narcotics, so surveillance was intensified. Two of the individuals under investigation were observed carrying out counter-surveillance maneuvers in an industrial estate in Don Benito, ultimately acting as a "shuttle" for another vehicle.

The following day, the main target of the investigation carried a large bag from the aforementioned warehouse to the town of Villanueva de la Serena, which he eventually placed in a car garage. Investigators maintained custody of this vehicle.

With the necessary authorizations, on March 27, the location and six other properties linked to this investigation were entered and searched. Eight people were arrested, and seven kilos of cocaine, more than two and a half kilos of cutting material, instruments and precursors for the extraction of narcotics, four firearms (a 12/70-gauge shotgun, a .22-gauge shotgun, a .30/6-gauge rifle, and a 5.56-caliber rifle with two magazines), numerous pieces of jewelry, and €112,000 in cash were seized. Fourteen high-powered vehicles, three motorcycles, and three light recreational boats were also seized.

Drug concealment systems

One of the seized vehicles was equipped with a sophisticated drug-concealing device installed behind the central instrument panel screen. Furthermore, during one of the house searches, a false bottom was discovered in one of the walls of the house and hidden behind a coat rack, from which 60,000 euros were seized. The organization also had a locator-detecting device that was found during another inspection, along with tools and dies for manufacturing cocaine packages.

The suspects allegedly ran companies with limited commercial activity, in order to give a legitimate appearance to the income obtained from drug trafficking. The investigation into this matter is continuing with the asset and financial investigation by specialized personnel from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency in Extremadura. These investigations may lead to liability for money laundering.

The operation involved personnel from the Regional Customs Surveillance Unit of the Tax Agency in Extremadura, agents from Group I of Organized Crime of the Central Udyco, and members of the IV Udyco of Seville.

The six men and two women, aged between 23 and 50, were arrested in the operation. Following the preparation of the relevant report, they were handed over to the judicial authorities, and all were ordered to be imprisoned.

The operation is still ongoing and further arrests are not ruled out.