Pandemic restrictions are slowly lifting in many countries but one business is already in the
full bloom of robust reopening: the drug trade. We are seeing new methods like making cocaine
look just like coal, crafting hidden hydraulic false bottom roofs on refrigerator trucks
moving pot by ambulances through Covid-19 red zones. And also a return to the old: hiding heroin
in marble slabs from the Middle East and sneaking tidy bricks of coke onto one of the first cruise
ships allowed to set sail for the United States after the long shutdown.
The Mob Reporter here with evidence that narcos never sleep
they've never stopped — even as most of the world did
and if Covid slowed them down, well they're now making up for lost time
Let me tell you about it
In Spain police announced a huge haul of coke cleverly camouflaged in what they called an unprecedented method
The cocaine was made to look like chunks of coal through a complex chemical process, investigators said, then packed up and hidden in a large shipment of real
coal. 862 kilos of coke were seized in Medina del Campo in the Spanish interior and three
people arrested, including a cop and an old-school trafficker of some renown from the Basque region
in northern Spain. The trafficker had previously spent 11 months in prison in Bolivia for drug
activity. The trio were named as part of a significant cocaine distribution organization
Investigators said the trafficker, who was experienced in the international drug trade,
was importing it to Spain by sea for the domestic market from Colombia, using a network
of corporations registered in the name of front men to give the shipments legitimate cover. Who said
old dogs can't learn new tricks. Here the coke was made to look like coal before shipping it abroad
Investigators said it was almost impossible to tell the coke from the real coal just by looking
at it. Not only did this process make it the same shape and color of coal but it also eliminated the
telltale smell of cocaine, thwarting detector dogs at the ports. The chunks of black cocaine coal were
mixed in with real coal of the 1,364 bags of coal that were stopped, only 30 bags contained the dope
In this video we see investigators holding a flame up to each and every piece of coal in this
enormous shipment to find which ones were chunks of coke. The sacks arrived in Portugal in April
Once detected tracking devices were hidden in the loads and they were monitored as it was trucked
into Spain. Laboratories in the north of Spain were ready to restore the coke to a saleable form
Police estimated its value at more than €30 million which is more than US$35 million
Now the process isn't quite as unique as the Spanish police would like us to believe
Two weeks before the seizure and arrests were announced 691 kilos of methamphetamine were seized
at a port in Mexico. The meth was inside blackened cylinders also made to look like coal and placed
inside 790 sacks of real coal. Here you see a black cylinder cracked open. That shipment was destined
for Spain as well, although on the opposite coast. It's entirely possible they're connected
There is a coal-based antecedent even older. In late 2019 a huge load of cocaine —
an incredible 12 tons — was found hidden in 60 tons of coal in Malaysia. The mammoth shipment
had arrived from South America. It was the largest coke seizure in Malaysia's history at that point
The Malaysian load was described as cocaine mixed with charcoal to make it look like the
rest of the chunks of coal. Local news accounts said the cocaine could only be extracted
through high technology by the department of chemistry, presumably at a local university
Malay authorities said the coke was also undetectable by sniffer dogs
It seems to be the result of the same process as in the Spanish load
in April in Spain investigators also marvelled at the dark ingenuity of other traffickers
This time it was a system of hydraulic lifts that were built to create a false bottom
in the roof of refrigerator trucks. The trucks were used to distribute food across Europe during the
pandemic, giving the movement the appearance of legitimacy. Hidden controls would release and lift
the metal plates of the roof revealing pockets of space where the insulation for the refrigeration
truck had been removed creating a hiding spot for a safe route for cross-border transport
despite the border closures and scrutiny. It was mostly moving hashish and marijuana but
also some cocaine, police said. 21 people were arrested in that, mostly in Madrid, Spain's
capital, after several raids that uncovered labs, cultivation and production facilities
In Italy, a record total of almost 13 and a half tons of cocaine was seized last year
Italian authorities said on Friday. That's more than 62 percent higher than in 2019
More than 70 percent of that coke was found in Italy's marine ports. In the south of Italy the
Mafia infested port of Gioia Tauro in the heartland of the 'Ndrangheta — the Mafia of Calabria — has renewed
its former position as a major gangland gateway to Europe. This month, Italy's financial police
announced another huge seizure of more than a ton of high purity cocaine there it was found hidden
in crates of bananas shipped from Ecuador, in South America. Police say the load had an estimated value
of €225 million because of its high grade quality; that's about US$366 million
Earlier this year, 1,300 kilos were discovered in shipments of coffee, frozen meat, and fruit
also from Ecuador and also Brazil at the same port. And an even larger load was found in a
northern Italian port. There was a time when Gioia Tauro was the biggest gangland gateway in Europe
but a government crackdown and the emergence of alternate routes, such as in Spain and the
Netherlands, cut the action back significantly. Over the last year it seems Gioia Tauro is back
At the height of the pandemic in Italy, a country hit hard by Covid, an ambulance was used to move
drugs through the red zones, the areas of lockdown where people could not travel in order to stop
the spread of contagion. Medical officials and medical supplies and equipment, of course, were
exempt from the restrictions and the gangsters and mobsters abused that by co-opting the ambulance of
a charitable organization. The discovery of drugs in an ambulance was made at the port of Messina
in Sicily after crossing the narrow waterway from Calabria. This week we learned the ambulance was
part of a wider and deeper plot than it first appeared with several loads, mainly of marijuana,
moving around Italy. Police tracked loads of 35 kilos, 30 kilos, and 25 kilos by a crime group in
the capital, Rome, moving them east to the Adriatic coast and south into Sicily, where it was delivered
to members of Mafia clans in Messina and Catania, two of Sicily's largest cities. This case provides
a sharp example of the grim reality of how easily narcos turned to violence. Wiretaps captured
their response when one of their couriers went missing. Not knowing police had seized the load
and arrested him, they assumed he had run away with it. Their solution, according to police wiretaps, was
one of scorched earth. Quote "we killed the family directly," he said. "We kill his mother, his sister his
children, his wife." All over a bale of pot. Eight people were arrested in that investigation
Now police in Romania also recently uncovered a sneaky hiding spot, this time in a shipment
of nice, polished marble slabs from Iran. Inside investigators found 1,452 kilos of heroin with
an estimated value of €45 million, according to police; that's more than US$53 million
The two containers arrived from the Middle East at the Romanian port of Constanța
on the west coast of the Black Sea — it's the fourth largest port in Europe. The heroin was
concealed in a shipment arranged by a legal company that was run by a criminal network
It was an international effort to track it and chase it as it traveled for a controlled
delivery in western Europe in late May. Police in France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands,
Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia were all involved, along with Europol
the European Union police agency. There were a dozen searches in four countries and ten arrests
including seven in Belgium, two in the Netherlands and one in Romania. Police say the boss set up a
complex network of legal companies across Europe to move the H from its production site in the
Middle East to its markets in Europe. He owned warehouses, companies, trucks in several countries
and had the logistical skills to coordinate and use them. It was the second mega heroin seizure
in Europe already this year, with a slightly larger one found in a port in the Netherlands in February
And if anyone needs more proof that the world's narcos are as anxious as anyone for the lockdowns
and restrictions to end there's this: Aboard one of the first wave of cruise ships to return
to sailing to and from the United States, a first officer aboard a large Royal Caribbean cruise ship
doing a routine inspection found tightly wrapped bricks stowed away in an out of the way void space
31 kilos of coke were turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents when it arrived in
South Florida, at Port Everglades.
As things open up and restrictions ease, we will all find important benefits and return to the people
and things that we love
And so will the narcos
Thanks for watching