Civil Guard Dismantles Network Selling War Weapons to Alicante Drug Traffickers

La Guardia Civil has dealt a significant blow to organised crime networks operating in Alicante and the wider Mediterranean region. The agents have dismantled a criminal organisation specialising in the sale of firearms, including war weapons, which were purchased by drug traffickers based in the Alicante province, as well as in Murcia and Cádiz.

The operation, as announced by the Civil Guard this Thursday, resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals and the charging of six others. The main hub of the gang was located in Murcia, with branches throughout southern Spain. Armed Forces specialists conducted 16 searches as part of a coordinated intervention across numerous locations.

The weapons were intended for criminals specialising in drug trafficking, who used them to guard marijuana plantations against potential raids by other drug groups, according to investigations.

The investigators detected a network in the Murcia region where individuals with licenses legally acquired tactical firearms to then hand them over to the leaders of the dismantled organisation. This was the method used to introduce them into the black market.

Subsequently, these frontmen filed false reports of theft or loss, thus diverting rifles, civilian versions of military assault rifles, and police shotguns. Following the arrest of one of these individuals, the Guardia Civil identified the network that was actually financing the purchase of the weapons, which was established in the Murcian town of Alguazas, according to investigation sources.

The network extended across several provinces, and some of its members had already been arrested for activities related to arms and drug trafficking. They also had numerous police records, including attempted homicide with a firearm, according to the same sources.

The investigation into the gang based in Murcia led agents to another group involved in arms trafficking in the province of Granada, where a dozen weapons, including war weapons, were seized. Most were buried in a wasteland. The organisation even had an underground shooting range to test its arsenal.

Both criminal groups supplied each other to meet the needs of their clients, who were mostly other drug trafficking organisations. Among the material they supplied were AK47 assault rifles, shotguns, and tactical rifles or state-of-the-art pistols.

The Civil Guard discovered that the Murcia organisation not only trafficked in weapons but also profited from the cultivation and wholesale distribution of marijuana. In fact, it controlled numerous indoor plantations. Part of the weapons they profited from was intended for the custody and security of these facilities to prevent thefts between rival organisations, commonly known as raids.

The plantations were remotely controlled by the network's leaders through wifi surveillance cameras. This way, they could monitor both the organisation's members managing them, such as foremen, labourers, or electricians, and detect possible police surveillance or the presence of other criminals interested in stealing their valuable drug crops.

The Civil Guard has identified and dismantled five of these marijuana plantations, in some of which illegal firearms used to defend them were seized if necessary.

Furthermore, investigators discovered that the Murcia organisation also extorted individuals who had taken out loans with very high interest rates. The detainees allegedly coerced and threatened their borrowers to repay the amounts, either by paying them in cash or by transferring all kinds of assets to their name or to people in their circle.

As a benefit from all these activities, they obtained substantial amounts of cash. This explains why more than €170,000 in cash was seized in one of the searches conducted. They tried to hide and launder their illicit origin through the acquisition of properties and luxury vehicles, whose ownership was registered in the name of third parties or shell companies.

La Guardia Civil conducted 16 simultaneous searches in the provinces of Murcia, Alicante, and Cádiz, and in total, 11 firearms were seized (including an assault rifle and a submachine gun), 897 metal cartridges of different calibres (249 of them war), a silencer, and numerous weapon magazines, €173,500 in cash, 1,733 marijuana plants, 4.1 kilos of marijuana, 400 grams of cocaine, five luxury vehicles, and a stolen car.

The agents also seized technical equipment used for marijuana cultivation, specifically, 168 LED lamps, 25 climate control systems, 46 fans, and 11 extractors. The investigation was led by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 3 of Molina del Segura (Murcia).