MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Two continents’ police bust ring that shipped cocaine hidden in frozen fish to Spain

The drug was mixed with the ice used to keep fish frozen

Brazilian authorities said they had smashed a ring of narco-traffickers said to have shipped drugs hidden in frozen fish to Europe. Eleven members of the drug and money laundering network, based in Brazil and with connections in Colombia, Portugal and Spain were arrested between last Friday and Tuesday and 5 million dollars worth of goods seized, prosecutors said.

Among those held was Colombian Alexander Pareja, a Rio resident accused of laundering drug money to buy property, gasoline stations and a construction company.

Another key suspect nabbed was Henry Alejandro Rodriguez Gallego, Pareja's brother-in-law who was accused of belonging to a narco-trafficking ring that sent at least two shipments of cocaine to Portugal, hidden in fish and ice. Final destination of the drug was Spain.
 

“We tracked the ring for eight months,” police inspector Paulo Teles told reporters.

Narcotics police agents from Spain, the United States, Portugal, Colombia and Uruguay assisted in the investigation that led to the arrests. The operation was code named “United Nations” because of the number of countries involved.

The drug which arrived in Brazil from Bolivia and Colombia was then shipped to Europe blended with the industrial ice used for freezing fish and other perishables.

Police last Friday also arrested a suspected Colombian narco-trafficker who landed at Rio international airport bearing false documents. Press reports identified him as John Freddy Manco Torres, known as “the Indian”.