A group of Montenegrin drug smugglers linked to the 'Pink Panthers' arrested in Adeje

The National Police and the Guardia Civil have dismantled a group of drug smugglers in the south of Tenerife linked to the dangerous Skaljari Clan, a Montenegrin mafia, with the arrest of four men, one of them a historical leader of the ‘Pink Panthers’, a gang of luxury jewel robbers in Europe.

In the operation, more than 400 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of over 25 million euros, and almost 500,000 euros in cash have been seized, according to the two security forces in a joint statement.

The gang had established a network to bring cocaine into the Canary Islands and its members, who went unnoticed, rented homes in luxury residential areas from which they distributed drugs to local dealers.

In November, the investigators observed how the members of the organization gave, on different days, 250,000 and 155,000 euros to third parties, to ‘clean’ it and introduce it into legal circulation, says the police statement.

Later, the agents detected the transportation of narcotic substances that was leaving from the south of Tenerife, when they identified two vehicles that were participating in the shipment, stopped them, searched them, and found 70 kilograms of cocaine in the vehicles, for which the two drivers were arrested.

Continued police investigations led agents to a property in Costa Adeje, where a third member of the organization was also arrested, with the rest of the drugs in his property This led to the search of other properties in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, where a further 338 kilograms of cocaine and 413,000 euros in cash were found.

In addition to this, the agents also seized another vehicle, a yacht, twelve encrypted telephones, numerous electronic security devices, banknote counting machines and vacuum packers.

The investigation has had the collaboration of Europol, the Interior Attaché of the Embassy of Spain in Serbia, and the police authorities of Albania and Montenegro.