Fourteen suspects linked to powerful cartel arrested in Spain murder investigation

Spain has arrested fourteen people suspected of links to the powerful Mexican Sinaloa Cartel as part of a kidnapping and murder investigation, police said Sunday.

The ring busted by Spanish investigators consisted mainly of Mexican nationals. It was linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel, which is based in northwestern Mexico and has been shaken for weeks 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 Spanish region in August, police said in a statement. statement.

The victim, whose nationality was not specified, was reportedly working with the gang and “had come from Italy to meet with several chefs.”

The victim’s family in Kosovo reported his disappearance to police after he was kidnapped 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 detained suspects are believed to be involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder, the statement said. The detainees, 11 men and 3 women, are between 30 and 70 years old.

The Catalonia-based ring received shipments from Mexico containing clothing soaked in methamphetamine, which they then extracted in a Spanish laboratory, police added.

The fourteen arrests came just days after Spain arrested one of the most senior police officers after €20 million was found hidden in the walls of his home as part of an investigation into the the largest cocaine burglary ever in the country.

The Sinaloa Cartel, named after the Mexican state it originates from, is one of the largest criminal organizations in the world. Two of the founders, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada are imprisoned in the United States.

Zambada, 76, was arrested on July 25 in the southern United States where he landed Joaquin Guzman Lopezone of the sons of ‘El Chapo’, who led a faction of the cartel known as the ‘Chapitos’. The veteran drug trafficker has accused Lopez of kidnap him and extradite him to U.S. law enforcement.

According to an indictment unsealed last year by the U.S. Department of Justice, the “Chapitos” and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chili peppers to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers”. El Chapo’s sons were among 28 members of the Sinaloa cartel indicted in a major investigation into fentanyl trafficking announced in April 2023.

‘El Chapo’ is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related crimes.

More than 450,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since 2006 due to increasing criminal violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking by gangs.

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