Twenty-four arrested for smuggling migrants from Algeria to Spain
The National Police supported by Europol has arrested 22 people in Alicante, one in Almería and another in Jaén for smuggling of migrants between Spain and Algeria, in a framework that took advantage of the return to the African country to support the escape of fugitives from Justice and for the transport from Spain to the city of Oran of ecstasy, psychoactive drugs and stolen objects.
According to a police statement, the detainees would have trafficked with more than 250 victims in 54 migratory episodes that have occurred in recent months.
The investigation has its origin in another police operation in which the dismantling of a criminal organization based in Spain and with cells based in Murcia, Alicante and Almería was carried out, the framework being made up of two criminal organizations perfectly structured under thorough coordination.
The costs of travel varied depending on the points of origin and destination: from Algeria to Almería they cost up to 5,000 euros, but from Almería to Alicante they ranged between 200 and 600 euros, and from this city to France between 700 and a thousand euros.
The detainees were based in the province of Alicante, although their scope of action included other provinces, mainly Almería, and other countries of the Schengen Area, mainly France.
Both organizations followed the same method: they used four work groups, each with perfectly diversified, structured and distributed functions and tasks. In collusion with criminal organizations based in Algeria, they used boats of different sizes to guarantee the illegal entry of immigrants into national territory, especially accessing through the Almería coast.
Of the four groups, there was a command group, the top of the pyramid, in charge of organizing, coordinating and sharing the tasks of the other members of the network.
A second group, with transport functions, was in charge of picking up the migrants upon their arrival by boat, taking them to the security apartments in Alicante and from there to other Spanish cities or to France.
A third group was dedicated to controlling and hiding the migrants during their temporary stay in the four security floors located in the city of Alicante, providing them with the necessary means for their subsistence in Spain, such as food, drugs or mobile phones.
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Finally, a fourth group was detected made up of “money changers” whose mission was financing, providing the necessary money to immigrants to pay for the services requested by traffickers.
This dynamic was carried out through the “Hawala” surreptitious money transfer system, based on trust between parties and consisting of currency exchange without the physical movement of money taking place.
This network used shuttles to carry out the border crossings between Spain and France, that is, they used a vehicle that circulated in front of the one carrying the migrants to alert them of the police presence and guarantee the success of the transfer.
The French route was taken by migrants who wanted to return trying to evade border controls, as well as the pilots of boats belonging to Algerian networks who were forced to stay in Spain for a while due to incidents that occurred during their maritime journey.
The stolen objects transported back to Algeria were electronic devices such as phones or tablets, jewelry, gold, scooters and watches, and they took advantage of the arrival of boats with immigrants to load them with drugs and objects of illicit origin that they smuggled into Oran, where they had a cell of collaborators in charge of their subsequent sale.
The detainees are accused of the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, against the rights of foreign citizens, against public health and reception.
The agents carried out nine entry and registration procedures in Alicante and four inspections in different commercial establishments in this city.
In total, more than 40,000 euros in cash were seized -both in national currency and in Algerian dinars-, four vehicles, three and a half kilos of ecstasy of the substance called “tusi” or colloquially “pink cocaine”, 56 grams of phencyclidine and 710 packets of contraband tobacco.
Numerous stolen effects were also located, such as 61 mobile terminals, three competition bicycles, electric scooters, various electronic devices, various third-party identity documents, bank cards and numerous documents related to the investigation.
