Bolivia questions Spain's fight against drug trafficking

MADRID, 8 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of the Government of Bolivia, Eduardo del Castillo, questioned this Wednesday Spain's fight against drug trafficking in reference to the case called 'Drogas-Barajas' for the shipment of 478 kilos of cocaine to Madrid in February this anus.

Del Castillo has indicated that the Bolivian government sent "a series of emails to all the authorities in Spain" to obtain official information on the operation. "We need Spain, the corresponding authorities, to send official information to our country to have exemplary sanctions against these people," he urged.

Thus, he has criticized that it was the Madrid Customs and Excise Administration that "became aware of the cargo and the irregularities" instead of the Civil Guard. "Why don't we investigate that?", He has indicated at a press conference, in which he has criticized that the Spanish institutions handle different figures on the seized drugs.

On the other hand, he also recalled that in March the authorities of the South American country found more than 67,700 MDMA pills from Spain. "Why are there no arrests in this case? Or perhaps there are no controls in Spain? Why are there no civil or police officers responsible for the shipment of drugs to our country (...)? Why is it not being investigating how drugs are sent (from Spain to Bolivia)," he said.

"All those involved in sending cocaine to Spain are going to fall here, but we also want those responsible for sending drugs to our country," he claimed.

In addition, the minister has reported that there are eleven people involved, of which seven have been arrested and they are looking for the remaining four. The first two detainees were two stevedores from the state airline Boliviana de Aviación (BOA), Diego V. and Freddy C., who were recorded by security cameras at the Viru Viru airport when they broke the seals on a container to introduce into a plane rented by BOA twelve cardboard boxes with drugs.

The rest of those arrested are the driver of the container trailer that would have transferred the drugs at the airport, Jorge W., and three members of a family responsible for the company that made the shipment, Carolina C, her partner Ronald M, and her mother. Maribel R. The seventh detainee is Carmelo C, a member of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (FELCN).

The Madrid Customs and Excise Administration intervened at the end of May at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport 478 kilos of cocaine that was in the hold of a flight from the international airport of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia.

As reported by the Tax Agency in a statement, the 478 kilos of seized cocaine represents one of the largest seizures in recent years at the Barajas airport. In 2002, a total of 1,200 kilos of this substance were seized in Madrid-Barajas, while in the first four months of 2023 the apprehensions equaled the records of last year.

Two officials from the Local Risk Analysis Unit of the Madrid Customs Administration were at the unloading point of the merchandise who observed the presence of the twelve packages that had not been declared at the time of boarding and departure of the aircraft. in origin. These packages all contained quadrangular tablets ('bricks') wrapped in plastic film, inside which was a substance that, after carrying out an analytical test 'in situ', gave a positive result for cocaine.