Ruthless, rich and bloody: now Europe's most vicious drug lords target Britain
Exploiting their links to Colombian suppliers, rival gangs entrenched in Spain's Galicia region are aiming to smuggle vast amounts of cocaine and cannabis into the UK, report Tony Thompson and Giles Tremlett.
The Observer
Sunday June 12, 2005
They are the most brutal, ruthless and successful drug barons Europe has ever known. Each month they land up to five tonnes of high-quality cocaine and cannabis on the rocky coast of Galicia in north-west Spain.
Thanks to its geography, seafaring tradition and strong links to Colombia, Galicia has become a drug smugglers' paradise. Over the years the two main smuggling gangs, the Charlíns and Los Caneos, have earned hundreds of millions of pounds but, as with any business, the gangs know they need to find new markets if they are to survive. This is why in recent months the Galician clans have, for the first time in their 20-year history, begun to target Britain.
In the past two weeks Spanish police, working alongside British customs officers, have detected and disrupted three separate smuggling networks attempting to bring vast quantities of cocaine or cannabis into the UK. In each case there were links between Galicia and British networks.
The first raid came at the start of the month, when law enforcement officials from Spain, Portugal and Britain launched a joint operation to seize the fishing vessel Atlantic Warner off the Spanish coast. Nearly five tonnes of cocaine - worth £225 million - were recovered. Eleven people, who included three Britons, were arrested in connection with the haul.
It was one of the most sophisticated sting operations in the history of British Customs. When armed Spanish police confronted the Atlantic Warner, almost all the crew were understood to be British customs officials or members of the Portuguese navy. The boat itself is believed to be owned by HM Customs & Excise.
The cocaine is thought to have been bought from producers in Colombia's Valle del Norte, who transported it by river to Venezuela and, from there, loaded it onto a vessel near Isla Margarita. That vessel then had a rendezvous with the Atlantic Warner and handed over the drugs.
Within days of the Atlantic Warner haul, a Spanish patrol vessel towed a yacht into the Galician port of El Ferrol. It had been boarded days after sailing from Trinidad under the German flag. On board was more cocaine destined for Britain. Some 230kg of the drug and £1m in different currencies were recovered. One person was arrested in Britain and the mainly German network of smugglers was rounded up. The ringleader was a German living on the Costa del Sol where, presumably, he had made contact with British smugglers.
Last week five Britons were arrested after a British-registered boat carrying eight tonnes of cannabis, worth £24m, was seized off the Spanish coast. The fishing vessel is believed to have left Britain some weeks earlier, docked in Galicia and then headed towards Morocco. It was boarded during its return journey. Four crew members - two Scots, a Spaniard and an Estonian - were arrested and three other Britons were detained in Glasgow.
Earlier this year, Spanish police broke up a drug-trafficking and money-laundering ring, seizing cash and property worth more than £8m. A Moroccan-born man with British citizenship, his British wife and a Spaniard were among those arrested.
These events follow the arrest last year of a British man in yet another international operation. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested on the Costa del Sol. He is alleged to be the mastermind behind a gang and had been charged with drug-trafficking and money-laundering. The man has been linked to Manuel Charlín, once one of Galicia's most powerful drug barons, who is now in prison. The close relationship between British gangsters and Galicia's drug dealers is of concern to British police because of the Galicians' connections with Colombia and their propensity for extreme violence.
In Galicia, shootings and the sudden disappearance of those said to be connected to smuggling, often believed to have been sent to the bottom of the sea by their rivals, have become more common since cocaine began arriving there in the Eighties. The Galicians specialise in transporting the cocaine from sea to land, and are believed to take a 25 per cent cut before handing it on to the owners for distribution around Europe.
They have both made Spain the biggest point of entry for the drug into Europe and brought phenomenal wealth to one of the country's poorest regions. The numerous coves and beaches of the rias, - estuaries - make perfect landing places. Boats known as planeadoras, commonly used by local mollusc farmers, make contact with vessels out at sea at night.
For years, Manuel Charlín had worked hand-in-hand with Manuel Baulo, another major trafficker from Galicia and founder of the Los Caneos gang. In 1989 Charlín was sent to prison and asked Baulo to travel to Mexico on his behalf to oversee his next smuggling venture. Baulo travelled with Charlín's 28-year-old daughter, Josefa, and several other members of the Charlín gang and successfully smuggled six tonnes of cocaine into Galicia.
A few years later, Baulo and Charlín fell out and the two gangs fought a series of bloody battles which saw many killed, including Baulo's nephew. In early 1994 Baulo was arrested and agreed to give evidence against Charlín.
Josefa allegedly telephoned Baulo's wife and told her: 'You know what happened to your nephew? Well, the same thing is going to happen to you.' Josefa allegedly arranged for a Colombian hitman to travel to Galicia. He claimed that she paid him £100,000 in cash and handed him the weapons with which to do the job. A few days later Manuel Baulo was shot dead. His wife, who was with him at the time, has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. Last week, the family was in the news again - during the raid on the Atlantic Warner, among those arrested were Daniel and Carlos Baulo, sons of the assassinated Manuel.
Josefa Charlín then went on the run and took over leadership of the gang in 1998. She once famously used her own daughter to launder drug money, passing more than £2m through the child's account. Living under the false identity of Angela Acha, she kept one step ahead of the authorities - and the Baulo gang - until last December when, at the age of 49, she was caught and sentenced to 17 years for drugs offences. In court she claimed that the Baulo family were the only ones involved in trafficking and that she was innocent.
Spain at present accounts for 60 per cent of European cocaine seizures - up to 44 tonnes a year. Only police in the United States, Colombia and sometimes Mexico discover more of the drug than their Spanish counterparts. But, even with the latest round of seizures, Spanish customs officials believe they stop less than 10 per cent of the drug traffic into Galicia. At least five tonnes get through every month.
The latest seizures may put a dent in the activities of the gangs, but previous attempts at dismantling the smuggling networks have ultimately done little more than change the names and faces at the head of the organisations.
There are also questions about the effectiveness of the Spanish judicial system when it comes to dealing with its biggest offenders. In January 2002 Carlos Ruiz Santamaría, alias El Negro, accused of being the head of one of Spain's biggest drug gangs, was charged in connection with the smuggling of 11 tonnes of cocaine. While he was on remand awaiting trial, the psychiatrist at Madrid's Valdemoro prison judged Ruiz to have extreme depression and said there was a risk he might commit suicide. He had lost 15kg in prison and suffered wild mood swings. The judges ignored the protests of the prosecution, who said his alleged depression could be treated in a prison hospital, and released him. The prosecution had demanded a sentence of 60 years and a fine of around £280m. Despite this, he was released on bail of just £18,000 on condition that he report to police. He has not been seen since and is believed to have returned to his native Colombia.
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Exploiting their links to Colombian suppliers, rival gangs entrenched in Spain's Galicia region are aiming to smuggle vast amounts of cocaine and cannabis into the UK, report Tony Thompson and Giles Tremlett.
The Observer
Sunday June 12, 2005
They are the most brutal, ruthless and successful drug barons Europe has ever known. Each month they land up to five tonnes of high-quality cocaine and cannabis on the rocky coast of Galicia in north-west Spain.
Thanks to its geography, seafaring tradition and strong links to Colombia, Galicia has become a drug smugglers' paradise. Over the years the two main smuggling gangs, the Charlíns and Los Caneos, have earned hundreds of millions of pounds but, as with any business, the gangs know they need to find new markets if they are to survive. This is why in recent months the Galician clans have, for the first time in their 20-year history, begun to target Britain.
In the past two weeks Spanish police, working alongside British customs officers, have detected and disrupted three separate smuggling networks attempting to bring vast quantities of cocaine or cannabis into the UK. In each case there were links between Galicia and British networks.
The first raid came at the start of the month, when law enforcement officials from Spain, Portugal and Britain launched a joint operation to seize the fishing vessel Atlantic Warner off the Spanish coast. Nearly five tonnes of cocaine - worth £225 million - were recovered. Eleven people, who included three Britons, were arrested in connection with the haul.
It was one of the most sophisticated sting operations in the history of British Customs. When armed Spanish police confronted the Atlantic Warner, almost all the crew were understood to be British customs officials or members of the Portuguese navy. The boat itself is believed to be owned by HM Customs & Excise.
The cocaine is thought to have been bought from producers in Colombia's Valle del Norte, who transported it by river to Venezuela and, from there, loaded it onto a vessel near Isla Margarita. That vessel then had a rendezvous with the Atlantic Warner and handed over the drugs.
Within days of the Atlantic Warner haul, a Spanish patrol vessel towed a yacht into the Galician port of El Ferrol. It had been boarded days after sailing from Trinidad under the German flag. On board was more cocaine destined for Britain. Some 230kg of the drug and £1m in different currencies were recovered. One person was arrested in Britain and the mainly German network of smugglers was rounded up. The ringleader was a German living on the Costa del Sol where, presumably, he had made contact with British smugglers.
Last week five Britons were arrested after a British-registered boat carrying eight tonnes of cannabis, worth £24m, was seized off the Spanish coast. The fishing vessel is believed to have left Britain some weeks earlier, docked in Galicia and then headed towards Morocco. It was boarded during its return journey. Four crew members - two Scots, a Spaniard and an Estonian - were arrested and three other Britons were detained in Glasgow.
Earlier this year, Spanish police broke up a drug-trafficking and money-laundering ring, seizing cash and property worth more than £8m. A Moroccan-born man with British citizenship, his British wife and a Spaniard were among those arrested.
These events follow the arrest last year of a British man in yet another international operation. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested on the Costa del Sol. He is alleged to be the mastermind behind a gang and had been charged with drug-trafficking and money-laundering. The man has been linked to Manuel Charlín, once one of Galicia's most powerful drug barons, who is now in prison. The close relationship between British gangsters and Galicia's drug dealers is of concern to British police because of the Galicians' connections with Colombia and their propensity for extreme violence.
In Galicia, shootings and the sudden disappearance of those said to be connected to smuggling, often believed to have been sent to the bottom of the sea by their rivals, have become more common since cocaine began arriving there in the Eighties. The Galicians specialise in transporting the cocaine from sea to land, and are believed to take a 25 per cent cut before handing it on to the owners for distribution around Europe.
They have both made Spain the biggest point of entry for the drug into Europe and brought phenomenal wealth to one of the country's poorest regions. The numerous coves and beaches of the rias, - estuaries - make perfect landing places. Boats known as planeadoras, commonly used by local mollusc farmers, make contact with vessels out at sea at night.
For years, Manuel Charlín had worked hand-in-hand with Manuel Baulo, another major trafficker from Galicia and founder of the Los Caneos gang. In 1989 Charlín was sent to prison and asked Baulo to travel to Mexico on his behalf to oversee his next smuggling venture. Baulo travelled with Charlín's 28-year-old daughter, Josefa, and several other members of the Charlín gang and successfully smuggled six tonnes of cocaine into Galicia.
A few years later, Baulo and Charlín fell out and the two gangs fought a series of bloody battles which saw many killed, including Baulo's nephew. In early 1994 Baulo was arrested and agreed to give evidence against Charlín.
Josefa allegedly telephoned Baulo's wife and told her: 'You know what happened to your nephew? Well, the same thing is going to happen to you.' Josefa allegedly arranged for a Colombian hitman to travel to Galicia. He claimed that she paid him £100,000 in cash and handed him the weapons with which to do the job. A few days later Manuel Baulo was shot dead. His wife, who was with him at the time, has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. Last week, the family was in the news again - during the raid on the Atlantic Warner, among those arrested were Daniel and Carlos Baulo, sons of the assassinated Manuel.
Josefa Charlín then went on the run and took over leadership of the gang in 1998. She once famously used her own daughter to launder drug money, passing more than £2m through the child's account. Living under the false identity of Angela Acha, she kept one step ahead of the authorities - and the Baulo gang - until last December when, at the age of 49, she was caught and sentenced to 17 years for drugs offences. In court she claimed that the Baulo family were the only ones involved in trafficking and that she was innocent.
Spain at present accounts for 60 per cent of European cocaine seizures - up to 44 tonnes a year. Only police in the United States, Colombia and sometimes Mexico discover more of the drug than their Spanish counterparts. But, even with the latest round of seizures, Spanish customs officials believe they stop less than 10 per cent of the drug traffic into Galicia. At least five tonnes get through every month.
The latest seizures may put a dent in the activities of the gangs, but previous attempts at dismantling the smuggling networks have ultimately done little more than change the names and faces at the head of the organisations.
There are also questions about the effectiveness of the Spanish judicial system when it comes to dealing with its biggest offenders. In January 2002 Carlos Ruiz Santamaría, alias El Negro, accused of being the head of one of Spain's biggest drug gangs, was charged in connection with the smuggling of 11 tonnes of cocaine. While he was on remand awaiting trial, the psychiatrist at Madrid's Valdemoro prison judged Ruiz to have extreme depression and said there was a risk he might commit suicide. He had lost 15kg in prison and suffered wild mood swings. The judges ignored the protests of the prosecution, who said his alleged depression could be treated in a prison hospital, and released him. The prosecution had demanded a sentence of 60 years and a fine of around £280m. Despite this, he was released on bail of just £18,000 on condition that he report to police. He has not been seen since and is believed to have returned to his native Colombia.
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