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Spain detains Mocro Maffia leader wanted by the Netherlands

Karim Bouyakhrichan was arrested along with five other suspected members of the Moroccan gang which is suspected of having bought 172 properties worth some €50 million to launder their gains from drug trafficking, police said.

Published: 25 January 2024 16:48 CET
Spain detains Mocro Maffia leader wanted by the Netherlands
Karim (pictured, centre) and the five other suspects who were arrested will go on trial in Spain and then sent to the Netherlands, where they are wanted for crimes carried out in that country. Screenshot: National Police

Spanish police said Thursday they had arrested a top member of the Mocro Maffia, a Moroccan organised crime group based in the Netherlands, suspected of leading a drug trafficking ring in southern Spain.

Karim is the brother of Samir Bouyakhrichan, another leading member of the Mocro Maffia who was assassinated in 2014 near Marbella, an upmarket tourist resort on Spain’s southern Costa del Sol.

That killing sparked a “reorganisation” of organised crime groups in the region which sparked a police investigations which ultimately led to the arrests, Daniel Vázquez, an officer with a Spanish police unit specialised in economic and tax crimes, told a news conference.

Karim, who is one of the most wanted criminals in the Netherlands, is suspected of leading a ring dedicated to “the international trafficking of narcotics on a large scale”, mainly by importing cocaine into Spain, police said in a statement.

The ring is believed to have had “a solid infrastructure” in place in several cities in Spain, as well as Morocco, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic and the United Arab Emirates to launder the money it made, the statement added.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain Europe’s cocaine gateway?

Police had been searching for Karim for five years. He was very difficult to track down because he moved from one country to another, had his own security service and was “very careful in his communications”.

Karim and the five other suspects who were arrested will go on trial in Spain and then sent to the Netherlands, where they are wanted for crimes carried out in that country.

The Mocro Mafia made international headlines in 2022 after it emerged that Dutch Crown Princess Amalia had been placed under heavy protection in response to fears of an attack by the group.

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:07 CEST
Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain’s Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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