The 58-year-old man traveled from Barranquilla hidden in a covered structure | Police, with dogs, searched the ship
A new blow to drug trafficking in Gijón has resulted in the arrest of a 58-year-old man from Colombia after being surprised with a large drug shipment that he tried to introduce into Spain through the port of El Musel. This individual was traveling as a stowaway on board the ship “Iraklis”, from the Colombian city of Barranquilla. The operation carried out this Monday afternoon by agents of the National Police, Customs Surveillance and Civil Guard has confirmed that the substance seized from this man was cocaine. Specifically, an amount of around 120 kilos divided into four bales and that has been left by court order in the custody of the Armed Institute. Until late at night, the agents continued to check the interior of the boat with dogs in case there were more hidden bales.
The ship, 180 meters long and 31 meters wide, with the Liberian flag and a crew entirely from the Philippines, arrived at the North dock around four thirty in the afternoonin the enlargement area. The crew had left the port of Barranquilla, Colombia, on March 5 after five days in port. It is a boat for the transport of merchandise inside which it housed dunite, a mineral intended mainly for the steel industry. But, in addition to the official merchandise, the ship carried a large amount of cocaine that this Colombian stowaway tried to hide and introduce into the country. It was the captain of the “Iraklis” who gave the warning voice upon noticing the presence of this man, who traveled hidden in an existing structure on the deck of this ship that in recent months has passed, in addition to Barranquilla, through the ports Puerto Cabello (Venezuela) and Rio Grande (Brazil).
The protocol in cases of stowaways deployed in El Musel by the Border Unit of the National Police Border Post was immediately activated. The agents, in the presence of the judicial entourage, subjected this individual to a drug test, which yielded a positive result, for which the Colombian stowaway was immediately arrested. Agents of the Civil Guard also participated in the police operation, as well as those responsible for the Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, who were deployed on the North pier. The arrested man was detained waiting for his statement to be taken before he is brought to justice for the crime of drug trafficking. The investigation remains open.
A drug test upon arrival
The operation against drug trafficking in El Musel comes just five days after the National Police raid on the Tremañes industrial estate, revealed by LA NUEVA ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, where a Chinese network hid 3,400 plants and 160 kilos of buds already packaged. It should also be remembered that, in the Gijón port itself, in May 2022, 175 kilos of cocaine were seized hidden in the box of chains of the ship “Magda P”, also pcoming from Colombia as in this case. In addition, in February, the “Nehir” was exhaustively searched by the Police, a drug ship that had been docked in El Musel for two years after its crew sank it after dumping a large part of the drugs on the Asturian coast. Specifically 1,831 kilos. The sailors were all arrested (and are awaiting sentencing after being tried at the National Court), and it was suspected that drugs were hidden, but nothing turned up.