Spain dismantled Farruku Clan, one of most important criminal organizations in Europe
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In the operation, 21 house searches have been carried out in the provinces of Cádiz, Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona and Toledo, 17 people have been arrested, including the main members of the organization, and the summons as investigated of 20 more people.
During the course of the investigation, numerous drug seizures in different European countries have been attributed to the organization, totaling almost 10,000 kilos of cocaine and 10,000 kilos of hashish, highlighting the 2 tons of cocaine seized in the port of Algeciras in January 2022.
So far, 25 vehicles and 22 real estate properties with an approximate value of more than 4,200,000 euros have been seized, as well as the accounts/products of 14 individuals and 30 companies have been blocked.
The operation began in September 2021 when the agents detected a group of people who were preparing to introduce a large amount of cocaine hidden in a container through the Port of Algeciras.
This fact was confirmed in January 2022, when two tons of cocaine hidden in a container from Guayaquil (Ecuador), which was transporting frozen hake, were seized in the Port. Thanks to this intervention, it was possible to demonstrate that those responsible for the drug were members of an organization that was being investigated.
From that moment on, researchers have carried out painstaking work to identify and locate the members of the organization, as well as to determine their position in the hierarchical structure, including their leaders.
In this process, it has been discovered that the organization is responsible for other attempts to introduce cocaine that were apprehended by police forces in other European countries.
In this way, it has been possible to link to the organization numerous actions that reflect the great capacity it had to introduce large quantities of cocaine through the main European ports in the last two years in Italy, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands or Spain.
In total, almost 10,000 kilos of cocaine seized and thirty-nine detained throughout Europe in all this time, in addition to the arrests made during the exploitation of this operation.
To these numbers must be added another 10,000 kilos of hashish seized in Portugal, which were not intended to be distributed as usual, but the objective was to replace each kilo of hashish from Morocco with a kilo of cocaine in South America.
This unusual practice, known as kilo-kilo, is typical of powerful criminal organizations that have sufficient infrastructure to move large amounts of drugs between South America and Europe.
It is a perfect deal, in which two organizations agree to exchange hashish for cocaine, mutually taking advantage of the low price of each product at source (hashish in Europe and cocaine in South America) and the high sales price at destination.
The Farruku Clan is a clan composed mainly of people of Albanian origin with family ties most of them. They had been settled in Spain for several years, mainly in Madrid and the Costa del Sol, for which there are numerous records, including murder, and indictments in various European countries.
This is the case of its leader, Kreshnik Budlla, alias "Niko", who has several requisitions and who is currently on the run from justice.
This family group of Albanians occupied the highest positions in the hierarchical structure of the organization and were responsible for directing and coordinating drug trafficking operations.
To do this, they personally participated to supervise the most delicate activities, such as the extraction of drugs from maritime containers or their transport to the organization's security locations.
The main strength of the organization was the great logistical capacity they had to carry out these operations around the world. In the case of Spain, as the Civil Guard has verified throughout the operation, they had an infrastructure made up of Spaniards, some of them businessmen or liberal professions, who gave them coverage and support to facilitate the introduction of the drug in Spain.
This support ranged from the rental of vehicles and ships to hide the drugs, to the creation and use of companies to facilitate the importation of legal merchandise where the drugs were hidden.
All this was possible thanks to an important network of contacts and collaborations with other criminal organizations. During the investigation, the agents have confirmed meetings between the main leaders of the Clan and important members of the Calabrian mafia.
However, these alliances have not always reported positive results.
When the two tons of cocaine were seized in January of last year in Algeciras, a member of this Albanian Clan, Ergys Dashi, was murdered the next day by two individuals who shot him while he was having dinner in a restaurant in Guayaquil, the city from which the drug merchandise.
According to the information obtained, this fact is directly related to the loss of the drug in the Port of Algeciras, since Ergys Dashi acted as an intermediary between the European Criminal Organizations and the drug lords in Latin America.
Use of false
dentities The heads of this Clan had false passports from different European countries, especially Italian and Greek, which provided them with numerous fictitious identities that made the investigation work difficult.
A special case was that of its leader, Kreshnik Budilla, alias "Niko", who has been detected with more than ten false identities. In this way, it became very difficult to coordinate and pool the criminal acts that the different European police forces attributed to this criminal organization.
Through this investigation it has been detected how he even posed as a Police Inspector from his native country, with investigative powers throughout the European Union. Said card and police badge, it has been possible to intervene in the search made at his home in Madrid.
Likewise, during the operation, photographs were accessed in which Kreshnik Budilla wore Civil Guard uniforms when traveling by vehicle within Spanish territory, thus avoiding being identified and later detained by the international indictments against him.
The investigation has been carried out by the Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team (EDOA) of the Judicial Police Organic Unit (UOPJ) of the Algeciras Command, supported in the exploitation by its Citizen Security Unit (USECIC) and Nucleus of Services.
The device has had the participation of more than 250 agents from different units of the Civil Guard, including the Special Intervention Unit (UEI), the Rapid Action Group (GAR), the Regional Center for Analysis and Intelligence against Drug Trafficking (CRAIN), the Cynological Service and the Commands of Malaga, Madrid, Barcelona and Toledo.
In this sense, it should be noted that great coordination efforts have been necessary with numerous Civil Guard units throughout Spain and other European police forces. In this way, the work of Europol has been crucial, since it has supported from the outset an investigation classified as "of special importance" by the European Agency.
For this, a high volume of information has been exchanged and it has been necessary to hold several coordination meetings organized at its headquarters in The Hague (Netherlands), in which police forces from Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Greece have participated, together with Investigators from the Civil Guard of Algeciras.
After this first phase of exploitation, the agents continue with the investigation, focusing on the economic and patrimonial analysis of the main members of the Organization, as well as their companies, to determine the commission of other crimes, including money laundering.
The investigation has been directed by the Investigating Court no. 4 of Algeciras and coordinated by the Campo de Gibraltar Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office. ■