Overview

• Authorities carried out 32 searches across Pontevedra, Ourense, Madrid, Barcelona, Guadalajara, Zamora and Portugal under the Cambados court’s mandate.
• Investigators say the group hid cocaine among bovine hides in containers unloaded at Portuguese ports, then moved it by road in vehicles with clandestine compartments to local safe houses.
• Nine of the 19 detainees have been remanded to prison as device forensics and judicial proceedings continue in Cambados.
• Europol coordinated the operation with authorised observers from the DEA and Portugal’s Polícia Judiciária, within the EU-funded GDIN framework.
• Seizures included €150,000 in cash, frequency inhibitors, satellite and encrypted phones, high-end vehicles, precision scales, a simulated handgun and a marijuana grow, following earlier interceptions of 600 kg in June and 1,500 kg in August.