Crime: Violent drugs gang arrested in Canary Islands. Luck runs out for ‘Pink Panther’
SPANISH police have arrested four suspected members of a dangerous Montenegro mafia gang working across the Canary Islands involved in a huge cocaine trafficking operation.
The joint operation between the National Police and Guardia Civil also saw 408kg of the drug seized along with half a million euros in cash in Gran Canaria.
And amongst those held of the notorious ‘Clan Skaljiari’ was the one-time leader of the ‘Pink Panther’ gang, villains infamous for targeting some of the world’s most luxurious jewellers in the early 2,000s.
Police officers watched members of the gang hand €250,000 and €155,000 to third parties to launder the profits.
And they seized two vehicles carrying 70kg of cocaine and arrested the drivers – it led detectives to a building in the Costa Adeje where a third gang member was held, guarding another cocaine stash.
Officers also swooped at a number of addresses in Gran Canaria and discovered a haul of 408kg of cocaine and another half million euros in cash.
Another luxury car, a yacht, 12 encrypted phones, cash counting machines, vacuum packing machines, and paperwork linked to the illicit trade was also discovered. A police spokesman said: “The four arrested suspects smuggled cocaine into the Canary Islands. They rented luxury residential homes from where they distributed narcotic substances to other local criminal organisations.”