Spain has arrested one of its top police officers after 20 million euros were found hidden in the walls of his house, as part of a probe into the country’s largest-ever cocaine bust.
Described as discreet and hard-working, Oscar Sanchez Gil was until recently the head of the fraud and anti-money laundering division of Spain’s National Police force in Madrid.
Officers arrested him last week along with 15 other people, including his romantic partner, a police source told AFP. The source did not name the romantic partner, who is also a police officer in the Madrid region.
During the raid, police found 20 million euros, or around $21.1 million, in cash hidden in the walls and ceilings of the couple’s home in Alcala de Henares, a town of around 195,000 inhabitants located some 18 miles east of the Spanish capital.
Officers also uncovered one million euros in his office, hidden in two locked cupboards, in bills of 50 to 500 euros, according to the police source.
The couple have been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and membership in a criminal organization after last week appearing before a Madrid court, which remanded them in custody, a judicial source told AFP.
Spanish media said the arrests were linked to a cocaine seizure in Algeciras on October 14 from a container ship that had arrived from Ecuador’s largest city Guayaquil, a drug-trafficking hub. The cocaine was hidden in crates of bananas. Fruit screens had been placed to hide the cocaine, police said in a news statement.
Police said the drug bust is the largest-ever haul of cocaine in Spain and “one of the largest seizures in the world”.
The container was destined for a Spanish importer based in the southeastern coastal town of Alicante “who had been receiving large quantities of fruit imported from Ecuador for years”, the authorities said. Spanish police said they cooperated with the National Police of Ecuador to intercept the shipment.
Spain, a main gateway into Europe for Latin American cocaine, has cracked down on drug shipments arriving from Latin America. Cocaine seizures at European ports have reached record levels, the head of Europol’s narcotics unit Robert Fay told the AFP.
Spain worked with counterparts in June to arrest 40 people in a years-long operation to bust a major drug smuggling ring. In July Spain participated in a takedown of a major network transporting Latin American cocaine into Europe by boat, which involved 50 arrests across eight countries. Twenty-six of the detainees were arrested in Spain.