Post date: Aug 10, 2012 3:29:21 PM
MADRID, SPAIN (POLICE HANDOUT) - Four members of a major Mexican drug-trafficking cartel have been arrested in Madrid, Spain's interior ministry said on Friday (August 10), including the cousin of Mexico's most wanted man.
Spanish police arrest the cousin of Mexico's most wanted man in connection with a narco-trafficking ring from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Sinaloa Cartel, one of the biggest criminal organisations in the world, was trying to set up a European operation based in Spain, a spokesman for the Spanish Police central office of organised crime who declined to provide his name, said at a news conference in Madrid.
"I understand the Sinaloa Cartel had almost no presence in Spain and the rest of Europe. That's why we are glad that we have stopped their first serious try to get into Europe," he said.
One of the four Mexican men arrested was named as Jesus Gutierrez Guzman, a cousin of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the head of the cartel.
"I wish Chapo Guzman himself had come but, as colleagues here from Mexico know, that's very difficult and rather impossible. He didn't come but he sent his cousin which means a lot. He also sent other people. The other three are important," he said.
All four men, who were arrested near a hotel in central Madrid, are wanted in the United States over allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering.
The arrests were part of a joint operation with the U.S. FBI dubbed Dark Waters, which began in 2009. Spanish officials involved in the operation seized a container with 373 kg of cocaine in the port of Algeciras in July.