Spain cracks down on cocaine financing network

Spanish police said on Tuesday they had dismantled an illegal banking network that served some of Europe's biggest cocaine traffickers, arresting 21 people in several countries including in the Middle East and uncovering assets worth €20 million ($23.2 million).

The network, dubbed the "narcobank", is suspected of having financed cocaine shipments, moved money internationally outside the banking system, used cryptocurrency to settle transactions and provided money laundering services.

"Without this financing, these shipments could not be moved from one country to another. Drug trafficking on this scale would not be possible," chief anti-money laundering inspector Encarna Ortega told reporters.

Authorities said 14 suspects were arrested in Spain and seven others in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the Netherlands and Sweden. Twelve more suspects remain at large. Europol, which supported the investigation, said that among those arrested was an underground banker it identifies as a high-value target. 

The investigation stemmed from the 2021 seizure of 1.84 metric tons of cocaine aboard the vessel Nehir, which police said was later deliberately sunk in the northern Spanish port of Gijon to conceal a further shipment of 1.65 tons.

Investigators seized 121 bank accounts holding €2.3 million, 48 properties valued at more than €14 million and luxury vehicles worth more than €1.6 million as well as other items.

($1 = 0.8611 euros)