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UKRAINE

Spain arrests two for smuggling military kit to Russia

Spanish investigators said Wednesday they had arrested a Ukrainian and a Russian on suspicion of smuggling military aeronautical equipment to Russia, defying an EU embargo linked to the Ukraine war.

Spain arrests two for smuggling military kit to Russia
Spain arrests two for smuggling military kit to Russia. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP

They were arrested at separate locations in the northern Basque Country in an operation by police and customs investigators to stop an “imminent” shipment to Russia, an interior ministry statement said.

“The raid was launched to prevent the imminent dispatching from the EU territory of equipment for the cockpits of military aircraft,” it said, without saying when it happened.

Investigators were tipped off in June 2021 about a married couple, both Ukrainians, who were running a Spanish company “evading existing export controls, thereby committing a smuggling offence”.

While checking the firm’s export records, investigators discovered a network to supply military equipment to Moscow’s aeronautical sector with a “profound knowledge of transportation logistics”.

It had designed a “sophisticated system of international customs documentation” that allowed it to ship goods “to countries not facing an embargo when in reality the destination was Russia”.

Investigators arrested two suspects – a Ukrainian and a Russian – one of whom was running the network, the statement said.

A police spokeswoman was not able to clarify whether the detained Ukranian was one of the two people running the company. One of the suspects has been placed in pre-trial detention.

During the raid, investigators also seized documentation and computer equipment as well as two high-end vehicles.

The statement said Russia’s military industry had been “severely impacted” by an EU arms embargo.

The EU first banned arms exports to Moscow following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, but has significantly tightened the rules through sweeping sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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CRIME

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

Europol said Thursday that a crime ring smuggling drugs into Europe had collapsed as the result of an investigation involving 40 arrests and the seizure of eight tonnes of cocaine.

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

The Hague-based European police force said the entire cartel, whose leaders were based in Turkey and Dubai, had been dealt a major blow after a final set of arrests Wednesday.

The vast three-year-long operation involved police forces from a dozen countries and ranged from Brazil to Spain via Turkey.

According to Europol, the final phase of the operation began with the discovery in August 2023 by the Spanish Guardia Civil of 700 kilos (1,540 pounds)of cocaine in a boat off the Canary Islands, crewed by Croat and Italian citizens.

After exchanging their findings with other police forces, the investigators found links with previous seizures which led to the identification of the masterminds.

In all, 40 people were arrested in six countries, including two top Croat members of the network, who were arrested at the end of 2023 in Istanbul, police said.

The last four arrests took place on Wednesday in Spain, according to Europol.

In one operation witnessed by an AFP journalist, heavily armed members of Spain’s Guardia Civil arrested a 40-year-old man at dawn at his home near Marbella, a seaside resort popular with drug traffickers.

The smugglers shipped cocaine from South America to logistical hubs in west Africa and the Canary Islands.

The drugs were then sent on to centres in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain for distribution across Europe.

Many of the drug network’s assets, with a total value of several tens of millions of euros, had been seized or frozen, Europol added.

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