The system was relatively simple, but also effective. Backpacks loaded with up to 14 kilos of cocaine traveled in the holds of planes from various cities in South America to Adolfo Suárez-Barajas Airport in Madrid. They carried check-in tags in the names of fictitious passengers, ensuring they were never claimed by anyone. Once at the airport, employees of a company responsible for managing the baggage were able to locate them thanks to the geolocation devices attached to the drugs and take them out of the facilities, bypassing security checks. To do this, they used the entrances to restricted areas, which they also entered outside of their shifts, and the vehicles with which they picked up their luggage on the runways.
The alleged suspects coordinated this through an instant messaging application, using which they exchanged instructions or alerted each other to the presence of police checkpoints using flame emoticons. The success of the delivery was expressed with a thumbs up symbol. Simple and effective, but far from perfect. Within nine months, they saw a dozen of these backpacks intercepted by the Civil Guard and the National Police, who eventually arrested nine of the suspected participants in the conspiracy, including seven airport employees, the Ministry of Transport reported this Friday. Inside.
The so-called Operation Laundry began on October 23, 2022, after the Civil Guard intercepted two backpacks that had arrived on a flight from Guayaquil (Ecuador) and in which 10.3 and 11.3 kilos of cocaine of high purity were found. Both packages had incorrect check-in tags and were en route to other Spanish cities, ensuring they did not make it to the baggage claim carousel. This seizure was followed in the following months by the seizure of another 10 backpacks containing “significant quantities” (between 10 and 14 kilograms each) of narcotics, until they totaled 174 kilograms, according to a police report to which EL PAÍS had access.
All caches had important similarities that suggested that all shipments were from the same organization. In addition to the information on the check-in labels, they had all traveled on Air Europa company aircraft departing from Guayaquil, Asunción (Paraguay) or Bogotá (Colombia) airports, and the handling company (airport ground services) The one who The person responsible for baggage management in Madrid was always the same: Groundforce. As the police document shows, everything pointed to the involvement of a group of employees of the latter company, who allegedly took the backpacks and transported them from the airport. They were the ones known in police jargon as “rescuers.”
The investigation led to the arrest of three employees on July 22nd as they tried to leave the airport with two backpacks containing a total of 26.8 kilograms of cocaine. Shortly afterwards, three other workers and the alleged recipient of the deliveries were arrested. The operation later enabled the passenger to be arrested on a flight from Colombia as he attempted to bring 14 kilos of cocaine into Spain. Finally, on December 15, after analyzing messages stored on the cell phone of one of the detainees, a seventh employee suspected of being involved was found.
As detailed in the report prepared jointly by the Civil Guard and the National Police, analysis of the messages exchanged by several participants in the conspiracy revealed that they were allegedly involved in a large proportion of the caches seized, but also in others that could not be confiscated intercepted by security forces. One of them entered Madrid airport on June 11 and the exchange of messages that concerns him is given in the police document as an example of the “rescue operation of a luggage or backpack containing cocaine” by the conspiracy since one of those arrested “tells what was in each Moment happened.”
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The conversation reveals that the recovery process takes more than 10 hours between 6:44 and 17:09, revealing imbalances in the plot despite having been in operation for months. The first message of self-encouragement – “May the Lord grant us success” – is followed by others in which they reveal how to “save” the backpack and keep it under “control” while carrying one on it waiting vehicle drives. that another member of the conspiracy arrives to get them out of the airport. “Bro, I’m doing roles with this girl [los investigadores concluyen que se refieren a la cocaína] “Here,” says one of them, complaining that the person who is supposed to pick it up hasn’t come and it’s been sitting in the stash for about two hours: “I’m taking it hard, brother.”
At that moment, another conspirator tells him that the drugs cannot yet be removed because there is civil defense for employees at the airport exit, and tells him to leave the vehicle with the cocaine “parked in the dining room.” He does this shortly after 8 a.m. after hiding the backpack containing the narcotics “under the passenger seat.” An hour later, she states that a second member of the network has supposedly already picked her up, but they can't leave because civilians are standing in front of the door, which she depicts with flame emoticons. “Is there a porter?” insists his interlocutor. “Yes, four,” he replies. “Then you have to endure them a little bit at the base,” is the answer.
Finally, just before three o'clock in the afternoon, nine hours after the cache arrived at the airport, the news indicated that “the girl” [cocaína] He has already left the airport. At 5:09 p.m. they confirm that it was supposedly delivered to the head of the plot. “It’s all positive,” one of them confirms. “My brother, a thousand blessings,” replies the other. Just a month and a half later, the first members of a network that smuggled drugs into Spain using backpacks and emoticons were arrested.
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