Agents of the National Police have dismantled a criminal organization allegedly dedicated to the trafficking of anabolic drugs and money laundering nationwide.
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The criminal network, with its operations center in Valencia, was made up of twelve people who have been arrested. In the searches and inspections carried out, 6,700 doses of doping substances, eleven packages with illegal medications and cash, among others, were seized.
The anabolics were imported mainly from Portugal, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, highlighting a sophisticated storage infrastructure for subsequent distribution throughout the national territory, through commercial parcel shipments.
The investigation began at the end of last year after the detection and analysis of numerous commercial shipments addressed to the Valencian town of XÃ tiva, coming from fictitious companies in Portugal, with the researchers establishing a common link.
These packages would be destined for one of the main people responsible for the criminal organization, who would be dedicated, along with other people, to the distribution of anabolics.
As a result of the first investigation work, the agents discovered the existence of a warehouse of doping substances, which were stored, prepared and managed from a home in XÃ tiva, with the aim of subsequently distributing them through logistics companies to numerous points of Spanish geography.
To do this, they used false sender affiliations, constantly changing them to make their identification difficult. In addition, they used different collection systems, such as transfers to family members or to foreign bank accounts.
The objective of the organization was to market these illegal medications to their final consumers, generally people linked to the world of amateur and semi-professional sports, sports nutrition and personal training.
These, in turn, advised and provided these substances to other people in the environment.
During the investigations, the agents managed to uncover the criminal network, being able to determine the identity of the people who would be receiving the doping substances from Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The agents proceeded to arrest these twelve people as allegedly responsible for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, against public health and money laundering, with two of them being imprisoned.
In addition, a home search was carried out in XÃ tiva, and inspections were carried out in a gym in Alicante and two sports nutrition establishments in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
6,700 doses of anabolics, eleven commercial packages with illegal medications, 1,800 euros in cash hidden in a package, as well as a high-end vehicle, six mobile phones and a computer were seized. ■