Spain has arrested one of its top police officers after €20 million was found hidden in the walls of his home as part of an investigation into police. the largest cocaine burglary ever in the country.
Described as discreet and hardworking, Oscar Sanchez Gil was until recently head of the fraud and anti-money laundering unit of the Spanish National Police in Madrid.
Officers arrested him last week along with 15 other people, including his romantic partner, a police source told AFP. The source did not name the romantic partner, who is also a police officer in the Madrid region.
During the raid, police found 20 million euros, or about $21.1 million, in cash hidden in the walls and ceilings of the couple’s home in Alcala de Henares, a city of about 195,000 people, about 18 miles (29 kilometers) away. east of the Spanish capital.
Officers also found one million euros in his office, hidden in two locked cabinets, in notes ranging from 50 to 500 euros, the police source said.
The couple have been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and membership of a criminal organization after appearing in court in Madrid last week, which remanded them in custody, a judicial source told AFP.
Spanish media said the arrests were linked to a cocaine seizure in Algeciras on October 14 from a container ship that had arrived from Ecuador’s largest city Guayaquil, a drug trafficking hub. The cocaine was hidden in crates of bananas. Fruit screens had been placed to hide the cocaine, police said said in a news statement.
According to police, the drug seizure is the largest ever quantity of cocaine in Spain and “one of the largest seizures in the world”.
The container was destined for a Spanish importer based in the southeastern coastal city of Alicante “who had been importing large quantities of fruit from Ecuador for years,” authorities said. Spanish police said they were working with Ecuador’s National Police to intercept the shipment.
Spain, a major gateway to Europe for Latin American cocaine, has cracked down on drug shipments coming in from Latin America. Cocaine seizures at European ports have reached record levels, the head of Europol’s narcotics unit, Robert Fay, told AFP.
Spain collaborated with counterparts arrested in June 40 people in a year-long operation to bust a major drug smuggling gang. In July Spain participated in a shutdown of a major network transporting Latin America cocaine brought to Europe by boat, during which fifty arrests took place in eight countries. Twenty-six of the prisoners were arrested in Spain.
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