The Guardia Civil has broken up a suspected smuggling gang in the Almeria municipality of Adra that was using floating petrol stations.
As reported by the Guardia Civil this Monday, April 3, it arrested ten people in the Almeria municipality of Adra. The detainees were transporting four boats that were to be used as floating petrol stations on the high seas to provide logistical support for smuggling operations.
‘Operation Amplio’ was initiated through a preventive action of the Fiscal and Border Patrol (Pafif) of El Ejido. It was centred in an area called Paraje Conda, in the Adra neighbourhood of La Curva.
According to the force, during the course of an operation, officers surprised a group of ten people on the premises of a farm who were trying to remove a boat with the help of a tractor. According to initial information, this vessel could be related to criminal acts of smuggling.
During the inspection of the boat, and while trying to identify the detainees, they allegedly began to insult the officers and “seriously disobey their instructions at all times”, in order to prevent them from carrying out their professional work.
According to the Guardia Civil, the detainees, in an attempt to avoid the impending inspection, even threatened to throw large stones at the officers. They even blocked the access roads to the property with vehicles to prevent other patrols from arriving to support them.
At one point during the operation, several of the detainees tried to drive the tractor and the boat back inside the perimeter of the private property from which they had left. They totally ignored the instructions of one of the officers who got in their way and whom they tried to run over. Meanwhile, the other perpetrators tried to flee in several vehicles.
Moments later, in coordination with the Command and Control Centre of the Guardia Civil services, a support and reinforcement team was organised and distributed. This finally allowed the inspection, search, and arrest of the ten people responsible for the acts.
In this operation, the Guardia Civil seized four boats prepared for smuggling operations, which contained 40 25-litre containers of petrol. Four vehicles were also confiscated, two of them found to have been stolen, which have been handed over to the owners who reported their theft.
The result of this operation led to the clarification of the commission of a crime against the rights of foreign citizens which occurred in mid-February and in which two of the seized boats were used.
As a result of the Guardia Civil action, ten people were detained for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organisation, two crimes of theft of motor vehicles, crimes against the rights of foreign citizens, smuggling, serious disobedience, and attacks on law enforcement officers.
Source: euroweeklynews
