Spain has arrested 14 people suspected of links to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel as part of a kidnapping and murder investigation, police said on Sunday.
The network dismantled by Spanish investigators was mainly made up of Mexican nationals. He was linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel, based in northwest Mexico and reeling from weeks of violence. infighting between gangs.
“The dismantled criminal network, based in Catalonia, is believed to be involved in the kidnapping and death of a man whose body was found in a wooded area” in the northeastern region of Spain in August, it said. the police in a press release.
The victim, whose nationality was not specified, was said to have worked with the gang and “came from Italy for a meeting with several leaders”.
The victim’s family in Kosovo reported her disappearance to the police after her kidnapping between late May and June.
The family received a ransom demand of 240,000 euros ($253,000) and a total of $32,000 was paid in cryptocurrency.
The 14 arrested suspects are believed to be involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder, the statement also said. The detainees, 11 men and 3 women, are between 30 and 70 years old.
The Catalan network received shipments from Mexico containing clothing soaked in methamphetamine, which they then extracted in a Spanish laboratory, police added.
The 14 arrests came just days after Spain arrested one of his main police officers after the discovery of a sum of 20 million euros hidden in the walls of his house, as part of an investigation into the the largest cocaine seizure ever made in the country.
The Sinaloa Cartel, named after the Mexican state from which it originated, is one of the largest criminal organizations in the world. Two of its founders, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman and Ishmaël “El Mayo” Zambada are imprisoned in the United States.
Zambada, 76, was arrested on July 25 in the southern United States, where he landed with Joaquín Guzmán Lópezone of the sons of “El Chapo”, who led a cartel faction known as “Chapitos”. The veteran drug dealer accused Lopez of kidnap him and hand him over to American law enforcement.
According to an indictment released last year by the U.S. Department of Justice, the “Chapitos” and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot peppers to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed, dead or alive, to the tigers”. El Chapo’s sons were among 28 Sinaloa cartel members indicted as part of a massive investigation into fentanyl trafficking announced in April 2023.
“El Chapo” is serving a life sentence in a Colorado maximum security prison after being convicted in 2019 for charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons offenses.
The spiral of criminal violence, largely linked to gang drug trafficking, has led to the murder of more than 450,000 people in Mexico since 2006.
