The Colombian Police have captured the Spanish Raúl Moreno Carazo, one of the most wanted alleged drug traffickers in Europe. The detainee was in a luxurious apartment in Bogotá, where he had taken refuge after fleeing Spain.
The director of Criminal Investigation and INTERPOL, Brigadier General José Luis Ramírez Hinestroza, said that Moreno, 45, is “required (by Spain) by a red circular for the crime of drug trafficking.” This is a request to law enforcement around the world to locate and provisionally detain the person pending extradition or handover.
The Directorate of Judicial Police and Investigation (Dijin, of the Police) reported in a statement that Moreno supposedly belongs “to a transnational criminal structure dedicated to cocaine trafficking, which was stored in fruit containers and sent from Colombia to the port of Valencia in Spain, to later be distributed on the European continent”.
A follow-up and an investigation that goes back three years ago
According to investigations by Colombian authorities, Moreno fled Spain in October 2020 after realizing that he was “in the eye of the Spanish authorities” for his activities related to drug trafficking.
Moreno, according to the Colombian Police, commanded an operation in Valencia (Spain) to recover a shipment of 1,861 kilos of cocaine. It all started because the drug traffickers had a “trusted driver” in a transport company who on June 16, 2020 had to divert the container to an agreed point in Valencia and there remove the cocaine stashes, according to the police report.
However, that transporter was not there that day and was replaced by another who did not know the plan and took a different route than the one the drug traffickers had planned. The group destined to recover the truck, led by Moreno, attempted to bribe the driver to change course or hand over the vehicle to them. However, he did not accept.
“Given the driver’s refusal, the four men tried to kidnap him and put him in a car, which caught the attention of several people who were in the area, who notified the authorities,” the information added.
The Civil Guard of Spain inspected the cargo and found 1,861 kilos of cocaine camouflaged in the bags of pineapple juice. The four men were arrested but released after posting bail. In this way, Raúl Moreno Carazo was able to flee Spain in the direction of Bogotá, where he was finally arrested. The detainee has been placed at the disposal of the International Affairs Office of the Attorney General’s Office of Colombia, pending the procedures and procedures for his extradition.
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