Could there be a more witless way for a massive global underworld operation to be busted wide open?
Well, sure, there's always room for more stupidity but this one must be in the running
A dispute between a Colombian man and a couple of women he hired for the evening inside his hotel
room in West Africa prompted a noise complaint — and when police came to settle them down an officer
spotted a stack of neatly wrapped bricks. That started the dominoes falling and what was exposed
from that tawdry squabble is quite remarkable. The Mob Reported here with news of the downfall
of a major hub of super-haulers who were moving major weight by air, sea, and land on what's called
"The African Route," a major axis of the crucial South America-to-Europe underworld trade route
And it was run by a former European cop. Or so they say, man named as one of the most
important traffickers on the African continent. Let me tell you about it
Inside the hotel room in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's main city, on Africa's west coast, police found
a Colombian man and 168 kilos of coke. He was arrested, and turned out to be a cook for a wider
organization. How fitting — a cook getting everyone in hot water. When the man was arrested, a suspected
boss of the organization seemed to fear the cook might spill the beans and quickly gathered up
his 73-year-old mother, his wife, and his son and fled, along with one of his men, a Spanish sailor
They were arrested before they could reach the border. He has been identified as Miguel Ángel
Devesa Mera, a Spaniard from Vigo in Galicia. That's a coastal region of Spain's north west
an area notorious for smuggling. We see him here, along with alleged accomplices, including his wife
He's 51 years old. Devesa stands out for being a former cop, an officer with the Policia Nacional
one of two federal police agencies responsible for much of Spain's anti-narcotics enforcement. It
didn't actually shock anyone in the know. Devesa has been a suspected top-tier target for more than
a decade. His past — or, more properly, his alleged past — sounds like a movie plot, an international
action thriller of a renegade cop being bounced from the force and moving to Africa where he uses
his skills for a new career, as a narco boss. Some of the tales are wild: weapons, explosives,
helicopters, false identities, fake documents, even a chainsaw murder — everything Hollywood ordered
He was expelled from the national police in 2003 after he was charged with breach of trust. When
he was released from prison he settled in Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa. It wasn't
a relaxing retirement. In 2009, a burnt-out Boeing 727 jetliner was discovered in the Saharan desert
in Mali. At first feared to be a devastating plane crash, the mystery was eventually settled
more or less, sparking international headlines illustrated by these amazing and haunting
photographs. It was revealed as a ghost plane — a jet deviated from the official aviation market
obscured through sales and false paperwork. It turns out the jet hadn't crashed at all
It landed safely and secretly on a clandestine airstrip, built on a dry lake bed. It was met by
a convoy of Jeeps and trucks and the plane's cargo from Venezuela was unloaded and transferred. It's
thought to be 10 tons of coke. And then the old jet was torched to destroy any evidence. Authorities
are convinced Devesa was involved. A year later he was also suspected in the messy demise of a
Colombian man with a chainsaw, but any charges and probes against him in Mali soon disappeared amid
swirling rumors and whispers. There's a great story that he once left 20,000 euros on a table and
started walking away from police, leaving officers to make a snap decision of which they wanted more
him or the pile of money. Police say Devesa was once a partner of the notorious and charismatic
Spanish smuggler known as Sito Miñanco. Sito became infamous in Spain as a gangland pioneer
among the first of the Spanish sailors in Galicia to forge contacts with South American
suppliers and to switch products from their traditional tobacco smuggling along Spain's coast
Sito bought the local soccer team and his generous investments brought it to unprecedented success
And then he made headlines for a series of exploits, arrests and plots
Sito and his men apparently had a nickname for Devesa. It signaled a controlling presence in
his new homeland. They called him: "Africa." So it's clear Spanish and African police had an eye on
him for years and were getting closer and closer. A lucky break gave investigators even more traction
A high-powered motor boat was in distress in the Atlantic Ocean last December. It was about
300 nautical miles off the coast of Ghana. It was slowly sinking with two Spaniards aboard, but when
a ship from Ghana came to their rescue, the men refused assistance and declined to abandon their
boat. They were eventually forced to abandon ship and accompany the rescue patrol. The men claimed to
have just been out fishing but their reluctance for assistance made them very suspicious
One of them is alleged to have been Devesa 's main partner. Meanwhile, after the titillated cook
slipped up and Devesa ran, police in Côte d'Ivoire searched several properties and found almost two
tons of coke in storage at a corporate building in the port town of San-Pédro, near the border with
Liberia. Ivorian authorities have already burned the two tons they seized — you see that here
The network seems a serious one, hardcore and meaty. It's estimated that between
50 and 60 tons each year passed through the African Route and this network is alleged to
have had a hand in a lot of it. 10 people were arrested in Côte d'Ivoire and paraded by police
A few were Spanish, two were Colombian, one a Portuguese and at least two were Ivorian. His
main partner, however, according to authorities, escaped the dragnet. He was one of the men in
the sinking boat and is known to be from Spain's region near its border with France
And so the hunt continues. Please check out my perks and bonus content
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