The Guardia Civil, in collaboration with various foreign police and judicial authorities, dismantled the Los Pituros clan, one of the drug trafficking family groups based in the Arosa estuary, which has been linked to tobacco smuggling and cocaine trafficking in Galicia since the 1980s. The arrest of Juan Carlos Vázquez, his son and a nephew, who were involved in the unloading of two thousand kilograms of cocaine in Portugal, represents the beheading of the second and third generations of the historic gang founded by Manuel Vázquez.
The police operation called Nazaré, led by the National Court and carried out simultaneously in Spain and Portugal, led to the arrest of six other suspected members of the group who were said to have been involved in the unloading of the drugs to be transported to Galicia. . They are all charged with alleged crimes of drug trafficking, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering.
The cache was discovered last April by the Portuguese Criminal Investigation Department after a glider carrying 300 kilos of cocaine and the lifeless body of a Portuguese citizen who was said to have died was discovered on Quebrada beach in the city of Peniche. under the boat's propellers as it unloaded the drugs. A few meters from this point, the agents located another 1,200 kilos of this cargo and three of the Galician boatmen involved in the operation were identified.
The investigation began in February when agents were able to determine that members of the Los Pituros group collected this shipment of cocaine in Atlantic waters, which they later landed in Peniche. To this end, according to Guardia Civil sources, the clan carried out an important deployment of both personnel and sea and land resources in Portugal to collect the drugs on the high seas and then transport them to Pontevedra.
Subsequently, by searching several properties associated with the group, the agents were able to recover an additional 220 kilos, thus collecting the necessary evidence to prove the Galician clan's responsibility for transporting this cache and its subsequent shipment to Galicia. It was also found that a large part of the seized drugs went to the Farruku clan of Albanian origin, known as one of the most active criminal organizations in Europe in the drug trade and with an efficient distribution network.
This investigation was coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, a team of Spanish and Portuguese organizations, in collaboration with the United States Anti-Drug Agency (DEA), led by the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 and the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office Court. National. This instrument of international cooperation was fundamental to the investigative work of both countries, allowing the acquisition and direct exchange of information and evidence, as reported by the General Directorate of the Guardia Civil.
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This Wednesday, after all the information was collected, agents of the UCO of the Civil Guard and the Portuguese Criminal Police carried out an extensive police operation to carry out actions in both countries, which led to the arrest of the members of the organization and searches in 12 houses and places where Los Piturros hid various land and sea assets to carry out their drug trafficking activities in the provinces of Pontevedra, Ourense, A Coruña and the Portuguese city of Monzón, on the border with Spain.
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