Spain’s National Police, working in conjunction with the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, have arrested 14 people suspected of links to the powerful Mexican Sinaloa cartel, as part of a kidnapping and murder probe, they said on Sunday.
The ring busted by Spanish investigators was mainly made up of Mexican nationals. It was connected to the Sinaloa drug cartel, which is based in northwestern Mexico and has been shaken by weeks of gang infighting.
‘The dismantled criminal network, which is based in Catalonia, is believed to be involved in the kidnapping and death of a man whose body was found in a wooded area’ near the town of Botarell (Tarragona) on 5 August, ‘in an advanced state of decomposition’, the police said in a statement.
The victim, aged 46, whose nationality was not specified, allegedly worked with the gang and ‘had come from Italy for a meeting with several chiefs’.
The victim’s family in Kosovo reported his disappearance to the police after he was abducted between late May and June.
The family received a €240,000 ransom request and a total of $32,000 was paid in cryptocurrency.
The investigators located a house in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres in the province of Barcelona where, allegedly, the criminal gang ended the life of the man – a house that they had painted and renovated later – as well as the vehicle they used to transport the body to the place where it was abandoned.
The 14 detained suspects were allegedly involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder, the statement also said.
The Catalonia-based ring received shipments from Mexico containing clothes soaked with methamphetamine, which they then extracted in a Spanish lab, police added.
‘The investigation culminated in a police operation in the city of Barcelona, Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Sant Cebrià de Vallalta and Cabrils (all in the province of Barcelona) with a total of 14 people arrested, including the mastermind behind the kidnapping and leader of the organisation,’ the statement said.
‘During the searches, in five homes and a restaurant, a laboratory for extracting methamphetamine impregnated on solid surfaces such as clothing was found, as well as methamphetamine prepared for consumption, a large quantity of ecstasy and a marijuana plantation. Firearms, technological material and money were also seized, as well as evidence directly related to the kidnapping and murder of a man. The detainees, 11 men and 3 women, are between 30 and 70 years old.’
The Sinaloa cartel, which is named after the Mexican state where it originated, is one of the largest criminal organisations in the world. Two of its founders, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada are jailed in the United States.
‘El Chapo’, 67, has been serving a life sentence for drug trafficking since 2019.
Spiralling criminal violence, much of it linked to gang drug trafficking, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006.
🚩Detenidas catorce personas vinculadas al cártel de Sinaloa por el secuestro y asesinato de un hombre en Cataluña
Este grupo está implicado en el secuestro y muerte de un hombre cuyo cadáver fue localizado en una zona boscosa de #Tarragona, que había viajado desde #Italia para… pic.twitter.com/flbIIsIe1m
— Policía Nacional (@policia) November 17, 2024
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